Viruses often
tow a very fine line between biotic and abiotic, and megaviruses are at the
forefront of divide. A new virus was recently discovered in a wastewater treatment
facility in Austria using metagenomic analysis of water samples. Researchers
were able to analyze nearly 7000 genomes present in the water to reassemble a that
of the newly identified Klosneuvirus (KNV). This is just one of many
megaviruses that have a genome that is larger than those of some bacteria, yet
it seems to have a gene expression profile that is remarkably diverse and
expansive. 15% of the genes that make up the viral genome are predicted to be
expressed, and the gene families present most closely resemble those of
Mimiviruses. Remarkably, the genome encodes proteins and enzymes that are
similar to cellular machinery of translation, including aminoacyl transfer RNA
synthetases that can be charged with all twenty amino acids. The similarities
to other large viruses and presence of genetic information that so closely
approximates dynamic cellular proteins lends credence to the assertion that
viruses came from cells. The virus doesn't need translational machinery to
persist, but its presence makes it a degenerate cell of sorts that may have
lost some capacity to be alive while keeping other. Moving forward, I’m curious
to see what host range such large viruses may achieve and whether these
infection events potentially represent a new endosymbiotic relationship.
-Andrew
-Andrew
-->
No comments:
Post a Comment