Strange New Virus Could Represent 'Entirely New System of Viral Evolution'

ScienceAlert ^ | 21 OCT 2019 | PETER DOCKRILL

[LucyT]

By sifting through pig faeces, scientists in Japan have discovered a new type of virus that could challenge the already complicated notions of how we categorise what viruses are, and what they can do.

Unlike living organisms that fall within the three 'domains of life' – bacteria, archaea, and eukaryota – viruses are fundamentally different because they don't have cells.

That lack of cellular anatomy makes them hard to classify from a biological standpoint, and even the question of whether viruses are actually alive or not has prompted much debate in scientific circles.

[LucyT]

Despite all the ambiguity, though, there is some general agreement on what constitutes a virus: a particle made up of genetic material (nucleic acid), encased within a protective protein container that can infect some sort of cell and, once inside, replicate itself.

But the previously unknown virus uncovered by researchers from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) defies that interpretation.

Read More in Article.

[BenLurkin]

Ah.

That alien invasion we’ve all been waiting for.

[LucyT]

.

PING

[catnipman]

hmmm. kinda sounds like a virus that’s a parasite of other viruses ...

[tired&retired]

Highlights
•
A novel type 2 recombinant EV-G was discovered in pig feces in Japan.

•
Type 2 recombinant EV-G carried the PLCP torovirus gene with unknown flanking genes, in place of the viral structural proteins.

•
Amount of type 2 recombinant EV-G in the pig feces was almost same with type 1.

•
Type 2 recombinant EV-G belonged to be a different cluster from the cluster of type 1.

[Fred Nerks]

...One explanation, the team suggests in its new paper, is the defective recombinant EV-G might exploit another virus – called a 'helper virus' – which could lend viral structural proteins to help EV-G type 2 disseminate itself.

Isn't that how communism rides in on the back of the socialists?

[tired&retired]

Per the article:

“The recombinant virus we found in this study has no structural proteins,” says virologist Tetsuya Mizutani from TUAT. “This means the recombinant virus cannot make a viral particle.”

According to the team, this means that the new discovery – called EV-G type 2 – wouldn’t be able to invade a host cell on its own; if it can’t do that, and therefore propagate itself, how does it exist at all?

One explanation, the team suggests in its new paper, is the defective recombinant EV-G might exploit another virus – called a ‘helper virus’ – which could lend viral structural proteins to help EV-G type 2 disseminate itself.

[dynachrome]

Pretty unclear what it does. “The Stand”, ebola, plague, heartbreak of psoriasis?

[HotKat]

Survival of the fittest.

[mewzilla]

And here's a link to an abstract of the paper...

A novel defective recombinant porcine enterovirus G virus carrying a porcine torovirus papain-like cysteine protease gene and a putative anti-apoptosis gene in place of viral structural protein genes

[indthkr]

Andromeda Strain bump for later....

[bgill]

By sifting through pig faeces

That's never been a good idea. Japan is currently battling their own special variant of the swine flu.

[UCANSEE2]

kinda sounds like a virus that’s a parasite of other viruses ...

It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

[traderrob6]

The Andromeda strain?

[V V Camp Enari 67-68]

We’re doomed I tell you, we are doomed!

[V V Camp Enari 67-68]

We’re doomed I tell you, we are doomed!

[TigersEye]

Alien nanobots. I’ve suspected it for a long time.

[CapnJack]

The "Helper" virus ...

[Vermont Lt]

Wait...I read this book.

It ends with us living at the Arctic Circle and killing the zombies when they freeze.

[TChad]

I recognized that instantly. That was a genuinely frightening scene. The scientists are watching the magnified image of the alien virus. It looks like a stable triangle, then all of a sudden it unfolds and increases in size. It is growing.

Gulp.