No one had ever seen a virus attach to another virus, until anomalous sequencing results sent an American team of scientists down a rabbit hole, leading to a discovery that is “the first of its kind.”
It is known that some viruses, called satellites, depend not only on their host organism to complete their life cycle, but also on another virus known as a “helper,” explains Evan Erel, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
The dependent virus needs the helper either to build its capsid, a protective shell surrounding the virus's genetic material, or to help it replicate its DNA.
These viral relationships require the follower and helper to be in close proximity, at least temporarily, but there have been no known cases of the follower actually associating themselves with the helper, until now.
In a paper published in the journal ISME, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County team and colleagues from Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) describe the first observation of a satellite bacteriophage (a virus that infects bacterial cells) that persistently attaches to a helper phage at its “neck” so that “the capsid joins the tail of the virus.” .
In detailed electron micrographs taken by Tajid de Carvalho, assistant director of core facilities for the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences and co-author of the new paper, 80% (40 of 50) of the auxiliaries were attached to the vasculature in the neck. Some of those that did not have a follower located in the neck were showing "bite marks," according to Errell.
“When I saw that, I said, ‘I can’t believe this,’” De Carvalho says. “No one has ever seen a phage, or any virus, attach to another virus.”
After initial observations, Ilya Mascolo, a graduate student in Eryl's research group and co-author of the paper, analyzed the genomes of the follower, helper, and host, revealing more evidence about this never-before-seen viral relationship.
Most dependent viruses contain a gene that allows them to integrate into the host cell's genetic material after entering the cell. This allows the follower to reproduce when a helper happens to enter the cell from then on. The host cell also copies the satellite's DNA along with its own DNA when it divides.
However, the follower in the University of Maryland sample, which the students named the MiniFlayer who isolated it, is the first known case of a follower without a gene for complementation.
Because it cannot integrate into the host cell's DNA, it must be near its helper - called the MindFlayer - every time it enters the host cell if it is to survive.
Given that although the team has not proven this explanation directly, "the link now makes perfect sense," Erel says.
One of the students working with Eryl revealed that MindFlayer and MiniFlayer have been developing together for a long time. “This subordinate has fine-tuned and optimized its genome to be associated with the assistant for at least 100 million years,” Erel says, suggesting that there may be many more instances of this type of relationship waiting to be discovered.
This groundbreaking discovery could easily have been missed, but the sequencing lab at the University of Pittsburgh reported contamination in a sample from the University of British Columbia that was expected to contain the MindFlayer phage, and so the voyage of discovery began.
The team's discovery paves the way for future work to figure out how the dependency is related, how common the phenomenon is, and more.
Experts warn that the world is not prepared to stop a crisis that is harming progress in the field of health!
The climate crisis threatens to undo decades of progress towards improving health, and governments are not prepared to stop it, the World Meteorological Organization said.
The report found that three-quarters of national weather agencies send climate data to their country's health officials, but at least one in four health ministries use the information to protect people from risks such as extreme heat.
Madeleine Thompson, head of climate impacts and adaptation at health research-funding charity Wellcome, who helped write the report, said: “Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to human health. Many countries are already having to deal with the serious consequences of record temperatures. With However, most of them are not prepared.
The report, written by the World Meteorological Organization with more than 30 partner institutions, found that although hot weather kills more people than any other type of extreme weather, health experts have only been able to access heat warning services. In half of the affected countries.
Scientists have warned that heatwaves will become hotter and longer due to the climate crisis. The world has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. However, this year's record temperatures have left scientists dazed.
Professor Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said: “Virtually the entire planet has experienced heatwaves this year. The appearance of El Niño in 2023 will significantly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records, bringing more extreme heat in parts of the world. "A lot of the world and in the oceans, and it makes the challenge even greater."
In an effort to reduce the loss of life, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction have led a campaign to provide early warning systems to all people on the planet by 2028.
Russian military analyst: New concepts that simulate technological development in future wars
With the development of modern technologies in the military field, a new military thought for waging war is being formulated, and penetrating artificial intelligence systems will be one of the most advanced means of confronting the enemy.
This was announced by Vladimir Prokhvatilov, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, in an interview he gave on November 2 to the Russian “Lenta.ru” electronic portal, where he said: “I believe that penetrating the enemy’s artificial intelligence systems will be a dangerous weapon in the wars of the future. Examples of these include the chatbots that they manufacture.” Now some American and Chinese companies." He explained, "For example, if the enemy has a squadron of aerial drones controlled by a drone equipped with artificial intelligence, then by hacking and reprogramming it, he can attack the enemy itself."
According to the analyst, some universities in the United States conducted experiments on artificial intelligence penetration, and some of them were successful.
The analyst pointed out that the conflict in Ukraine has refuted all US military doctrines based on the use of the latest weapons because aircraft carriers, ships and stealth aircraft can be easily destroyed by cheap drones that can be quickly replaced.
The analyst said that after the problem became clear, the general trend now aims to use these small drones on a large scale.