Infetion, Evolution, and Koalas
A new study published in Cell, gives us insight on how wild Australian koalas are helping researchers better understand how DNA protects itself from viruses. The recent viral epidemic in Australia has had the continent's famous fuzzy little bears fighting infection and susceptibility to cancer. The virus, KoRV-A, spreads between individual animals, just like most retroviruses—however, it is also passed through the germline cells to offspring.
Interestingly enough, scientists have been able to use this mechanism to learn more about how germline cells respond to virus intruders. From their findings, it seems that germ cells posses an ability that had previously been undiscovered. Our germline cells are able to detect the "un-spliced" virus-specific RNA introns, cut them up into piRNAs, and ultimately stop the formation of the virus to suppress genome infection.
According to the researcher, Zhiping Weng, who is a professor in the Program of Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology at UMass Medical School:
"What we are seeing with koalas is something that every organism on the planet has gone through. Animals get infected by retroviruses that enter the germline cells. These viruses multiply and insert into the chromosomes, altering host genome organization and function, and the process continues until the invader is tamed by the host. At the end of this infection cycle, the host has changed."
The makes a lot of sense given that a large chunk of our human genome encodes fo fragments of DNA viruses. Thanks for the lesson, koalas!
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867419310086?via%3Dihub
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191010113231.htm
- Caity McGinley
A new study published in Cell, gives us insight on how wild Australian koalas are helping researchers better understand how DNA protects itself from viruses. The recent viral epidemic in Australia has had the continent's famous fuzzy little bears fighting infection and susceptibility to cancer. The virus, KoRV-A, spreads between individual animals, just like most retroviruses—however, it is also passed through the germline cells to offspring.
Interestingly enough, scientists have been able to use this mechanism to learn more about how germline cells respond to virus intruders. From their findings, it seems that germ cells posses an ability that had previously been undiscovered. Our germline cells are able to detect the "un-spliced" virus-specific RNA introns, cut them up into piRNAs, and ultimately stop the formation of the virus to suppress genome infection.
According to the researcher, Zhiping Weng, who is a professor in the Program of Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology at UMass Medical School:
"What we are seeing with koalas is something that every organism on the planet has gone through. Animals get infected by retroviruses that enter the germline cells. These viruses multiply and insert into the chromosomes, altering host genome organization and function, and the process continues until the invader is tamed by the host. At the end of this infection cycle, the host has changed."
The makes a lot of sense given that a large chunk of our human genome encodes fo fragments of DNA viruses. Thanks for the lesson, koalas!
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867419310086?via%3Dihub
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191010113231.htm
- Caity McGinley
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