When I was an academic working in the bacterial virus (phage) field my lab used to find these viruses with no similarity to anything in the databases all the time. We would find virus after virus that had a totally unique genome. The only way we could identify the genes that encoded the structural proteins was to extract the virus proteins from purified viruses and get them mass speced.
The really amazing thing is if you looked at these viruses under an electron microscope they looked exactly like known viruses (most looked like a lambda phage [1]). There seems to almost an infinite number of ways of making viruses that look just like lambda.
The more I think about this, the more distressing this gets. I'd love to hear a little more about this.
Does this mean lambda phage form is some sort of biology's equivalent (or as close as it gets) of a universal constant, or rather — was the genes that encode the 'container' (apologies for my lack of correct terminology here) the same, and the viral payload different, or is it also the case that the 'container code' is also unique between these viruses?
I don't doubt it. I would be willing to bet that that (unranked category) of "life" is one of the least cataloged. Plus, consider the variance in speed of lateral transfer and mutation.
> Viral novelty doesn’t surprise Elodie Ghedin of New York University, who looks for viruses in wastewater and in respiratory systems. More than 95% of the viruses in sewage data have “no matches to reference genomes [in databases],” she says. Like Abrahão, she says, “We seem to be discovering new viruses all the time.”
You don't know what you don't know, I guess. That also means there is an invaluable wealth of genetic knowledge out there that we haven't recorded yet. I can't wait to see what insights are revealed once we've catalogued that missing 95%.
As a species we've barely scraped the surface of understanding this earth. Consider: we haven't even scratched the crust of the planet. Not to mention the infinite space beyond.
This is sorta why it makes me even more mad that our species is more concerned about silly political arguments rather than investing large fractions of our GDP into Science, educating more scientists and unleashing them on the mysteries that the world has to offer.
Instead the greatest minds of our generation are now focused on selling ads. It feels so pointless.
The short book "A Planet of Viruses" includes this little fact and more, it's a good read for people who want an ELI5 introduction to what's known. My only change would be to have more pictures, but there's always the internet for that.
that's not just true for viruses, it's true for pretty much anything. we've barely scraped the surface in terms of sequencing microbes, fungi, plants, birds, fish, ..., not to even consider variation at the population (or god forbid, somatic cell) level.
> Marine viruses, although microscopic and essentially unnoticed by scientists until recently, are the most abundant and diverse biological entities in the ocean. Viruses have an estimated abundance of 10^30 in the ocean.
Marine bacteriophages kill about 40% of all bacteria in the ocean every day.
(I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean, there must be a way that the maelstrom of evolution doesn't create monsters, eh? Or maybe we are playing Russian Roulette every time we go in the water?)
> (I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean, there must be a way that the maelstrom of evolution doesn't create monsters, eh? Or maybe we are playing Russian Roulette every time we go in the water?)
If humans start living in contact with the oceans for long enough we might! Viruses may seem magical but as with life, its statistics over the long run. There might be viruses with mutations that cause them to annihilate humans; but those mutants may just never have had the chance to come in contact with us and thus die off, or at least don't multiply.
I know "no recognizable genes" is in the title, but it's misleading. They're recognizable as genes, but never seen before:
> When the team sequenced its genome, none of its genes matched any scientists had come across before, the group reports on the bioRxiv preprint server.
These viruses seem to be as ancient as cellular life, and may preserve genes that did not become incorporated into the last common ancestor of living beings. That, or new protein families evolve even today.
When I was a child I read a book of short stories, I think it may have been Ray Bradbury. Anyway a cosmonaut leaves earth at near-light speeds and returns what are a few months to him, I dont remember how many years had passed on earth. The world was covered in green goo and the only people left were Americans and Russians living in submarines and still trying to kill each other with biological warfare. I believe anyway, this was about 25 years ago. It made me very afraid of all arms races. Does anyone happen to know the name of the author/book/story?
To me, viruses are simply the survival horde of random mutation and recombination of amino acids. Let it be long enough and a world of organic compounds would create something like viruses.
[+] [-] danieltillett|6 years ago|reply
The really amazing thing is if you looked at these viruses under an electron microscope they looked exactly like known viruses (most looked like a lambda phage [1]). There seems to almost an infinite number of ways of making viruses that look just like lambda.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_phage
[+] [-] rolleiflex|6 years ago|reply
Does this mean lambda phage form is some sort of biology's equivalent (or as close as it gets) of a universal constant, or rather — was the genes that encode the 'container' (apologies for my lack of correct terminology here) the same, and the viral payload different, or is it also the case that the 'container code' is also unique between these viruses?
[+] [-] anonsivalley652|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fpgaminer|6 years ago|reply
> Viral novelty doesn’t surprise Elodie Ghedin of New York University, who looks for viruses in wastewater and in respiratory systems. More than 95% of the viruses in sewage data have “no matches to reference genomes [in databases],” she says. Like Abrahão, she says, “We seem to be discovering new viruses all the time.”
You don't know what you don't know, I guess. That also means there is an invaluable wealth of genetic knowledge out there that we haven't recorded yet. I can't wait to see what insights are revealed once we've catalogued that missing 95%.
[+] [-] pm90|6 years ago|reply
This is sorta why it makes me even more mad that our species is more concerned about silly political arguments rather than investing large fractions of our GDP into Science, educating more scientists and unleashing them on the mysteries that the world has to offer.
Instead the greatest minds of our generation are now focused on selling ads. It feels so pointless.
[+] [-] Jach|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amphitoky|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thaumasiotes|6 years ago|reply
To be catalogued, whatever it is has to be noticed first. The world is much too big for that to happen to most things.
[+] [-] 3fe9a03ccd14ca5|6 years ago|reply
Seems like a fun field to go into if you want something named after yourself (and your family, and your friends, and your pet)
[+] [-] benibela|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] carapace|6 years ago|reply
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10840041-a-planet-of-vir...
There are viruses that go into the hosts DNA, replicate along with it over generations, then wake up and start being viruses again!
The oceans are Grey Goo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_bacteriophage
> Marine viruses, although microscopic and essentially unnoticed by scientists until recently, are the most abundant and diverse biological entities in the ocean. Viruses have an estimated abundance of 10^30 in the ocean.
Marine bacteriophages kill about 40% of all bacteria in the ocean every day.
(I don't know why you don't explode into viruses ten seconds after you enter the ocean, there must be a way that the maelstrom of evolution doesn't create monsters, eh? Or maybe we are playing Russian Roulette every time we go in the water?)
[+] [-] pm90|6 years ago|reply
If humans start living in contact with the oceans for long enough we might! Viruses may seem magical but as with life, its statistics over the long run. There might be viruses with mutations that cause them to annihilate humans; but those mutants may just never have had the chance to come in contact with us and thus die off, or at least don't multiply.
[+] [-] mirimir|6 years ago|reply
Basically, none of our ancestors did. Or vice versa, mutatis mutandis, and so on.
[+] [-] mirimir|6 years ago|reply
> When the team sequenced its genome, none of its genes matched any scientists had come across before, the group reports on the bioRxiv preprint server.
[+] [-] keanzu|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wcoenen|6 years ago|reply
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.28.923185v1....
[+] [-] HarryHirsch|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] effingwewt|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sci_prog|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eitland|6 years ago|reply
Aren't viruses dependent on hosts?
[+] [-] sinuhe69|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xTJ|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
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