A virus attached as a parasite to another virus, so much so that it has been nicknamed vampire virus. This is the incredible discovery made by a group of researchers from the Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Maryland (Baltimore) in collaboration with scientists from Washington University in St. Louis.
Viruses that parasitize other viruses
The team of scholars, led by the professor Tagide deCarvalho, was able to observe something that, until today, had only been hypothesized. Let’s talk about the existence of viruses that parasitize other pathogens. Suffice it to say that since 1973 some researchers were looking for what was called satellite virus at the time, studying the P2 bacteriophage, i.e. a virus that infects the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli. In some cases, that type of infection led to the birth of two different genera of viruses, phage P2 and phage P4
By studying various types of growing medium collected in Maryland and Missouri, Professor deCarvalho’s group has finally found what has been searched for years without success. In fact, a satellite virus, called MiniFlayer, closely related to another phage virus, called instead MindFlayerknown to infect the bacterium Streptomyces. In short, the two pathogens were connected to each other. But it doesn’t end here.
The research team noticed that MiniFlayer did not behave like a normal satellite. In fact, under the microscope, it was seen how the small, round, purple virus was attached underlying the larger virus. In essence, MiniFlayer was literally attached to MindFlayer’s neck. Hence the nickname “vampire virus”.
How the vampire virus works
This completely extraordinary situation can be explained by the fact that MiniFlayer is not a virus that remains dormant waiting for its companion to infect a bacterium. Instead of waiting, this little vampire virus has evolved, developing aappendix which allows it to attach itself to the neck of the other virus, subduing it. We don’t know if over time MindFlayer, the “victim” of this combination, will develop a way to protect itself.
“When I saw it, I thought, ‘I can’t believe it.’ No one has ever seen a batteriofago attach to another virus,” Professor Tagide deCarvalho told the Washington Post. “We don’t know whether or not the satellite (MiniFlayer) is injecting its DNA into the helper or whether it’s just hitching a ride and then falling over. Hopefully someone else will take this work forward to answer this really interesting question.”
The study was recently published in Journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology.
2023-11-24 17:21:00
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