The Enigma of Viruses: Are They Alive and How Do They Function?

Hello everyone, I am Fuyao. Welcome to explore unsolved mysteries with me.

I have always wanted to talk about a topic, which is viruses. Come do an issue today.

Let me ask you a question first, do you think viruses are alive?

How do viruses invade cells

You might say, of course there is. Didn’t it mean that the virus has eyes, and I know how to find the right person to attack. However, the scientific community does not think so.

In fact, in ancient times, people did not have the concept of virus. Although there are endless records about infectious diseases or plagues in history, almost all ancient civilizations believe that this is related to the condemnation of heaven. Among the seven disasters brought down by angels after the end of the world in the Apocalypse of the Bible, one of them is the plague.

It was not until 1935, when American biochemist Wendell M. Stanley and his colleagues discovered tobacco mosaic virus by means of refining, that people knew the driving force behind the virus, an infectious disease.

Viruses are only about one-thousandth the size of bacteria, and their structure is very simple, which is DNA or RNA nucleic acid molecules wrapped by a protein shell. Compared with cells, mechanisms are so simple that they seem like inanimate matter. In fact, when the virus does not find a host, it is indeed silent and there are no signs of life. It is not impossible to say that it has no life.

However, as soon as the virus got close to its target, it immediately came alive. It will take off the protein coat and only allow its own genes, that is, DNA nucleic acid molecules, to enter the cell body. After entering, some foreign nucleic acid molecules will accurately find the mechanism of gene replication inside the cell, and then induce it to produce its own genes. The DNA of these sparrows then begins to give instructions to the cells to synthesize their own proteins, the shell that wraps around the viral DNA. These newly baked virus parts will also be assembled automatically to become the next generation of viruses. There are so many viruses that one cell cannot hold them, what should I do? They lyse cells. In this way, those nascent viruses drift away like dandelion seeds, looking for the next target. The whole process is interlocking, and there is no redundant action. As long as the environment is suitable, the virus will spread geometrically in this efficient operation mode.

Speaking of this, some people may ask, viruses are much smaller than cells. Is that cell so obedient, allowing it to behave in its own body?

Fortress of viruses in cells

In fact, cells also have their own immune mechanism to deal with the invasion of foreign enemies, which can recognize foreign invaders and keep them out. However, the “IQ” of the virus is obviously beyond our imagination. In 2022, American molecular biologist Thomas Laughlin’s virus experiments revealed the secret of how viruses bypass the cellular immune system.

Laurin’s research object is a virus called a “giant bacteriophage.” A bacteriophage (phage) is a virus that specifically targets bacteria, infecting and killing them. They exist widely on the earth, and they are also the experimental subjects that scientists prefer to use, similar to the guinea pigs in the virus research world.

His research team found that giant phages build a shielded compartment inside bacteria’s cells, similar to the nucleus in human and animal cells. The nucleus is the regulatory center of cell metabolism and heredity. Most of the material inside is DNA, and the outside is surrounded by a thin nuclear membrane. There are ring-shaped openings in the nuclear envelope, called nuclear pores, that serve as passages for material to enter and exit. On the whole, the nucleus is a fortress that protects DNA.

And this shielded compartment, which is also a fortress built by the virus inside the cell, very effectively protects the DNA of the virus from the attack of the bacterial defense mechanism. Miraculously, this fortress is still alive, it expands with the replication of its internal DNA, and it even communicates matter with the outside world through small exits in an extremely precise manner.

Experimental collaborator Corbett (Corbett) lamented that this is a very creative solution, but it is also very simple, that is, to build a wall for isolation. They named the protein that made up the wall Chimallin, which is the name of the shield in the hands of the brave Aztec warriors in ancient America.

The results of their experiments were published in the journal Nature that year. At the end of the paper, there is a suspense, saying that we only discovered the existence of this wall, but we have not yet found out how it was built. I hope that everyone will continue to study and write a “prequel” to the story of this wall.

Viruses are dead? !

Speaking of which, can you believe that all of this is portraying the astoundingly lowly beings of viruses? Or, is it a tiny substance that is not even recognized as a living thing in the scientific world?

Yes, although the virus is so smart, in the scientific community, it is still considered a biochemical structure between life and non-life. However, the main reason is not whether viruses have life characteristics, but that the theory of evolution cannot explain the existence of viruses.

Because according to the theory of evolution, all creatures in this world evolve from simple to complex. According to this point of view, there should be viruses with simple structures on the earth first, and then bacteria and other organisms with complex structures. However, the fact is that viruses cannot survive alone, and only rely on the host to survive and reproduce. Then there should be bacteria as the landlord first, and then viruses as the tenant. Isn’t this a contradiction?

This difficult problem in the theory of evolution soon rose to the philosophical level of the chicken laying the egg, and returning the egg to lay the chicken. Finally, someone said, why don’t we classify viruses as non-biological. Without life, wouldn’t it be impossible to participate in evolution? Isn’t the conflict resolved? When everyone heard it, it made sense, so the virus has the embarrassing identity of whether it is alive or dead.

However, since the virus was discovered, it has not stopped challenging the theory of evolution. For example, in the past few years, everyone has received a lot of new crown vaccines, right? Why? Because the new coronavirus has mutated. From Alpha, Beta to Gamma, Delta, and now Omicron has been updated at least 5 times.

The so-called mutation is the mutation of the viral DNA. The mutated virus has two different sets of DNA from the old virus, so naturally they are two completely different lives. You see, there is only 1.6% difference in the DNA of humans and chimpanzees, so they are two completely different lives, right? So in this way, the old vaccine will not work. We can only extract new vaccines from new viruses and give them another injection. At present, as long as the mutation is still in progress, the vaccine will continue to be administered. It seems that this is the only solution.

Everyone knows that viruses are fickle. In fact, escaping the siege of humans through DNA mutations is already an almost instinctive ability of viruses. However, in the virus world, the mutation speed of the new crown is still relatively slow.

In his book “The Edge of Evolution” (The Edge of Evolution) published in 2007, American biochemist Professor Michael Behe ​​took HIV as an example to introduce the challenge of the phenomenon of viral gene mutation to the theory of evolution. HIV mutates 10,000 times faster than cells. Since its discovery, HIV “has undergone more mutations than all cells have undergone since the beginning of the world,” Bayh said. Therefore, the development of AIDS vaccine is also very difficult.

According to the theory of evolution, why do organisms produce genetic mutations? It is to better adapt to the environment, so the mutated creatures will develop from low-level to high-level, because high-level creatures have stronger abilities, so it is easier to obtain food and avoid enemies, right?

However, after so many mutations, HIV shows no sign of transforming into a higher life. They seem happy to be just a virus. “The (HIV) virus has not undergone any major fundamental biochemical changes at all,” said Prof Bayh. Obviously, the genetic mutation of HIV does not occur randomly, as the theory of evolution says, but has a specific goal, which is to change the shape of its own protein so that human drugs cannot adhere to it and destroy it. In this regard, whether it is the new coronavirus or the influenza virus, they are following the same path as HIV, which is to use genetic mutations to deal with the pursuit of human beings.

Until now, we humans have not been able to control our genes. But these little viruses are capable of doing it, and changing genetic combinations is as easy as changing clothes. Isn’t it amazing? We don’t know when this game of “Catch me if you can” between viruses and humans will end, but so far, no epidemic caused by viruses has been declared conquered by humans except for smallpox. This is also indisputable. fact.

But the magic of the virus doesn’t stop there. Let’s take a look at the viruses in the human genome.

There is a type of virus called “endogenous virus” that is ubiquitous in the genome of an organism. In the human genome, these viruses account for about 5% to 8%, and the academic community has always believed that they exist because they infected our ancestors thousands of years ago, and by chance they inserted their genetic information into our DNA. In the middle, there is no harm now, but it is also useless. Therefore, these viruses are also known as junk DNA (junk DNA) by the academic community. Like the cecum, they are considered to be by-products left in the evolution process. For a long time, these junk viruses have been considered a strong evidence of evolution.

However, Japanese medical professor Shimin Ishino’s mouse experiments found that an endogenous virus called “PEG10” played a key role in the formation of the placenta. The presence of “PEG10” viruses is very widespread and is found in the genes of humans and many other mammals. They inhibited the function of PEG10 in experiments and found that the mice could not form placentas and the fetuses died. Another gene-embedded virus, PG11, was found to be essential for the tiny blood vessels that form the placenta. Some other Japanese scholars also made new discoveries in the plant world. They found that an endogenous virus in the morning glory gene affects the color of the petals. And this phenomenon also appeared in dahlia and gentian.

At this time, the proponents of creationism came out to speak. Every flower and grass in this world was created by God. God has arranged these viruses in human genes, so they must be useful. The same goes for the cecum. It’s just that you haven’t discovered it in the scientific community. So are these garbage viruses not garbage, and even play a vital role in our body? In today’s highly developed genetic science, perhaps we will have the answer in the near future.

giant virus from extraterrestrial

Let’s look at giant viruses again.

In 2015, French biologist Jean-Michel Claverie and his team isolated a virus called “Mollivirus Sibericum” from Siberian permafrost samples 30,000 years ago. This virus is so huge that it can be seen with an ordinary optical microscope, but ordinary viruses can only be seen with an electron microscope with a magnification several thousand times higher.

This virus is the fourth giant virus discovered so far. The remaining three are Mimivirus, discovered in 2003, Pandoravirus, discovered in 2013, and Pithovirus Sibericum, also found in Siberia.

These viruses are even larger than some bacteria and have a more complex interior, containing many genes and features that encode complex proteins. Among them, some genes possessed by mimiviruses are not even possessed by some small parasitic bacteria. So can they still be counted as inanimate matter?

The most special of these is the Pandora virus. Its appearance and genetic composition are very different from other giant viruses. What is even more peculiar is that only about 75% of its genes are homologous to the creatures on the earth. Professor Cleverly even believes that this virus comes from extraterrestrials. Like Mars. But it seems that there is no place for aliens in the theory of evolution, right? How can this be explained?

Well, let’s stop talking about viruses today. There is a saying that the virus is the black hole of the theory of evolution, and once it comes to the virus, the theory of evolution will not work. So what do you think?

Unsolved Mysteries, I am Fuyao. See you next time.

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Responsible editor: Li Mei#