Name: Scientists Discover Mysterious Virus in Brazil With No Known Genes They Can Identify
Brand: sciencealert.com
SKU: sciencealert-com-5
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Scientists Discover Mysterious Virus in Brazil With No Known Genes They Can Identify

preview

Scientists have identified an enigmatic whose genome seems to be almost entirely new to science, populated by unfamiliar genes that have never before been documented in viral research.The so-called Yaravirus, named after – or Iara, a water-queen figure in Brazilian mythology – was recovered from Lake Pampulha, an artificial lake in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.While Yaravirus (Yaravirus brasiliensis) may be no supernatural siren, the could prove to be just as mysterious as the water nymph of legend.That's because the virus&nbsp;constitutes "a new lineage of amoebal virus with a puzzling origin and phylogeny," the research team about the discovery.Two of the senior members of that team – virologists Bernard La Scola from Aix-Marseille University in France, and Jônatas S. Abrahão from Brazil's Federal University of Minas Gerais – ought to know what they're talking about.Two years ago, the pair helped to discover another water-dwelling viral novelty: , a giant virus found in extreme aquatic habitats., as opposed to the regular variety, are so-called because of their huge capsids (protein shells that encapsulate virions - virus particles).These much larger viral forms were only , but they're not only notable for their size. They also possess more complex genomes, giving them the , and therefore perform things like DNA repair, plus DNA replication, transcription, and translation.Prior to their discovery, it was thought that couldn't do things like that, being regarded as relatively inert, , only capable of infecting their hosts.We now know viruses are , and in recent years, scientists have uncovered that similarly challenge our thinking about and .The new discovery, Yaravirus, does not appear to be a giant virus, composed as it is of small 80 nm-sized particles. But what's notable about it is how seemingly unique its genome is."Most of the known viruses of amoeba have been seen to share many features that eventually prompted authors to classify them into common evolutionary groups," ."Contrary to what is observed in other isolated viruses of amoeba, Yaravirus is not represented by a large/giant particle and a complex genome, but at the same time carries an important number of previously undescribed genes."In their investigations, the researchers found over 90 percent of Yaravirus genes had never been described before, constituting what are known as (aka ORFans).Only six genes found bore a distant resemblance to known viral genes documented in public scientific databases, and a search through over 8,500 publicly available metagenomes offered no clues as to what Yaravirus might be closely related to."Using standard protocols, our very first genetic analysis was unable to find any recognisable sequences of capsid or other classical viral genes in Yaravirus," ."Following the current metagenomic protocols for viral detection, Yaravirus would not even be recognised as a viral agent."As for what Yaravirus actually is then, the scientists can only speculate for now, but suggest it could be the first isolated case of an unknown group of amoebal virus, or potentially a distant kind of giant virus that may somehow have evolved into a reduced form.Either way, it's clear we still have an awful lot to learn, the researchers say."The amount of unknown proteins composing the Yaravirus particles reflects the variability existing in the viral world and how much potential of new viral genomes are still to be discovered," .The findings are reported in .

Scientists have identified an enigmatic whose genome seems to be almost entirely new to science, populated by unfamiliar genes that have never before been documented in viral research.The so-called Yaravirus, named after – or Iara, a water-queen figure in Brazilian mythology – was recovered from Lake Pampulha, an artificial lake in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.While Yaravirus (Yaravirus brasiliensis) may be no supernatural siren, the could prove to be just as mysterious as the water nymph of legend.That's because the virus&nbsp;constitutes "a new lineage of amoebal virus with a...

public

Peter Dockrill

🔭⚗🌏🐛🚀🌌🌿✨ Official Twitter for http://sciencealert.com

sciencealert.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Scientists Discover Mysterious Virus in Brazil With No Known Genes They Can Identify

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS