-PJ
Posted on 07/19/2013 1:28:41 PM PDT by neverdem
Genome of largest viruses yet discovered hints at 'fourth domain' of life.
The organism was initially called NLF, for “new life form”. Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Abergel, evolutionary biologists at Aix-Marseille University in France, found it in a water sample collected off the coast of Chile, where it seemed to be infecting and killing amoebae. Under a microscope, it appeared as a large, dark spot, about the size of a small bacterial cell.
Later, after the researchers discovered a similar organism in a pond in Australia, they realized that both are viruses — the largest yet found. Each is around 1 micrometre long and 0.5 micrometres across, and their respective genomes top out at 1.9 million and 2.5 million bases — making the viruses larger than many bacteria and even some eukaryotic cells.
But these viruses, described today in Science1, are more than mere record-breakers — they also hint at unknown parts of the tree of life. Just 7% of their genes match those in existing databases.
“What the hell is going on with the other genes?” asks Claverie. “This opens a Pandora’s box. What kinds of discoveries are going to come from studying the contents?” The researchers call these giants Pandoraviruses.
“This is a major discovery that substantially expands the complexity of the giant viruses and confirms that viral diversity is still largely underexplored,” says Christelle Desnues, a virologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Marseilles, who was not involved in the study.
Claverie and Abergel have helped to discover other giant viruses — including the first2, called Mimivirus, in 2003, and Megavirus chilensis, until now the largest virus known3, in 2011. Pandoravirus salinus came from the same Chilean water sample as M. chilensis. Claverie picked up the second Pandoravirus, P. dulcis, from a pond near...
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Obamavirus next?
Meh. I saw a bunch of these at the beginning of promethius.
That movie sucked.
-PJ
Fascinating stuff, even if I barely understand it.
Waiting for the day we create something we cannot kill.
How about BFV? (*Participants are limited to three guesses each* *void where prohibited by law*)
_____
Its already here and it wants to enslave or kill all of us.
To create a little context for this, on the tree of life, the very top level is “alive or not alive”, with of course, only life qualifying.
The very next level is called “domain”. For centuries now, there were only two domains: bacteria and “Eukarya”, or “everything alive that isn’t bacteria.
But then, not too long ago, biologists decided that there was a third domain. “Archaea”. They look like bacteria but aren’t bacteria, following a completely different evolutionary path. Originally they were called “extremophiles”, because they were found in extremely harsh environments, where even bacteria don’t live. They also eat things that bacteria don’t eat, like hydrogen gas.
And, surprise, they also live in the intestines of some people, and are important to good digestion.
To add a fourth domain so soon is a radical notion, and will take much debate. For example, why did bacteria and Eukarya evolve a lot, but Archaea and Pandoraviruses not evolve very much at all.
Big Friendly Viruses?
And, perhaps why some are fat and some are skinny?
Not nearly as bad as Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, or the Alien vs. Predator films. All-in-all, I enjoyed it but was left with more questions than answers.
A good question to which there is only a limited answer yet.
Archaea do consume hydrogen gas generated in the gut, that inhibits bacterial growth; so bacteria function better and our food is more nutritious. The end product is methane.
“Methanobrevibacter smithii is the dominant archaeon in the human gut. It is important for the efficient digestion of polysaccharides (complex sugars) because it consumes end products of bacterial fermentation. Methanobrevibacter smithii is a single-celled micro-organism from the Archaea domain. M. smithii recycles hydrogen in methane, allowing for an increase in the transformation of nutrients into calories.”
“Researchers have sequenced M. smithii genome, indicating that M. smithii may be a therapeutic target for reducing energy harvest in obese humans.”
“The human gut microbiota has three main groups of hydrogen consuming microbes: methanogens including M. smithii, a polyphyletic group of acetogens, and sulfate-reducing bacteria.”
Importantly, of the 300-1000 different kinds of bacteria in the gut, though almost all the space is occupied by 30-40 different kinds, there are some bacteria that directly contribute to weight gain.
One such are those from the enterobacter genus.
“A recent study has shown that the presence of Enterobacter cloacae B29 in the gut of a morbidly obese individual may have contributed to the patient’s obesity. Reduction of the bacterial load within the patient’s gut, from 35% E. cloacae B29 to non-detectable levels, was associated with a parallel reduction in endotoxin load in the patient and a concomitant, significant reduction in weight.”
Cousin to the BFG 9000. Participants may or may not get the reference, lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
