An unusual microbe in the Antarctic may reveal the origin of the virus
August 30, 2017 Source: Technology Daily
Window._bd_share_config={ "common":{ "bdSnsKey":{ },"bdText":"","bdMini":"2","bdMiniList":false,"bdPic":"","bdStyle":" 0","bdSize":"16"},"share":{ }};with(document)0[(getElementsByTagName('head')[0]||body).appendChild(createElement('script')) .src='http://bdimg.share.baidu.com/static/api/js/share.js?v=89860593.js?cdnversion='+~(-new Date()/36e5)];According to a recent paper published in the journal Nature Microbiology, scientists have discovered a unique and rare microbe in the Antarctic. The analysis of this microbe provides an extremely important clue to the origin of the virus, the greatest mystery of evolution. Helps solve the mystery of how the virus first appeared.
The virus is different from other forms of life. All other forms of life are made up of cells, which are complex machines that can survive and reproduce independently. Viruses are much simpler, and although the virus itself can do very little, they begin to replicate themselves as soon as they enter living cells. When a virus needs a host, it usually also harms the host, such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS when it infects a person. One of the biggest mysteries in chemistry has long been: Is the virus an older, simpler form of life, or a parasite that emerges after cell evolution?
This time, a research team at the University of New South Wales in Australia discovered an archaea in the Antarctic. This is a single-celled creature that looks like a bacterium but actually belongs to a single life. Given the important role of the virus in the Antarctic ecosystem, they attempted to find the virus in the cells of the archaea, but found the plasmid. Plasmids are small pieces of DNA that are present in living cells, usually small round pieces that are not part of the cell's main genome but are capable of being replicated independently.
Plasmids are found in many bacteria and organisms such as yeast. But the research team found the plasmid unusual, it can leave the host cell to find a new host, the team named it pR1SE. pR1SE looks and behaves like a virus, but lacks any genes that indicate it is a virus. It can be said that this is a plasmid with a viral property. The researchers say there is really no significant difference between this plasmid and the virus.
Based on this, the research team speculated that in the early days of life, the first appearance of the virus may have evolved from the same plasmid as pR1SE. (Reporter Zhang Mengran)
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