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Viruses, which can contain DNA or RNA, are some of the most mysterious organisms on Earth. It’s not known with certainty whether they are living organisms or not. Scientists for the first time ever have discovered a virus that has no recognizable genes, making it a real oddball compared to all other known viruses. Of course, not all viruses are known, but more are being discovered daily. A different research group has just discovered thousands of new viruses inside the tissues of dozens of animals.
The discovery makes researchers question how much they really know about viruses. Jônatas Abrahão, a virologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte stated this finding speaks volumes on “how much we still need to understand” about viruses.
Mr. Abrahão made his discovery while he was hunting looking for giant viruses. The microbes, some of which are the size of bacteria, were first discovered inside amoebae back in 2003 in a local artificial lake. Abrahão and his colleagues found new giant viruses, but they also discovered a virus that because of its small size was very much unlike most that typically infect amoebae. They named the newly discovered virus Yaravirus.
The size of this virus wasn’t the only oddity about it. Once the team sequenced its genome, none of its genes matched any genes scientists had come across before. Unusual viruses don't surprise Elodie Ghedin of New York University very much. Ghedin spends much of his time looking for viruses in wastewater and in respiratory systems. She said that 95% of the viruses in sewage data have "no matches to reference genomes [in databases]. We seem to be discovering new viruses all the time."
While Abrahão was chasing down viruses, Christopher Buck and graduate student Michael Tisza, virologists at the National Cancer Institute, were searching in a much wider area such as in animal tissues for circular viruses including papillomaviruses. One of the human papillomaviruses can cause cervical cancer, and another similar virus is usually harmless to people, but not always. Buck has found evidence some may be linked to bladder cancer in patients with kidney transplants.
The viruses were found by isolating viral particles from many dozens of tissue samples from humans and animals, and they were screened for circular genomes. The team discovered nearly 2500 circular viruses, 600 of which are completely new to scientists. It’s still unclear what impact these microbes may or may not have on human health, the team reported in eLife. Buck says the data should help doctors and scientists begin to make the connections on the impact they may have on human health.
It's know that while some viruses cause disease, some live in the human body may actually help keep us healthy. Other viruses are essential for keeping ecosystems running smoothly by helping to recycle essential nutrients. Curtis Suttle, and environmental virologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver says that the bottom line is we could not survive without them.
References
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/scientists-discover-virus-no-recognizable-genes
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/02/07/2212231/scientists-discover-virus-with-no-recognizable-genes
https://thefloridaoracle.com/scientists-discover-virus-with-no-recognizable-genes/