A virus so large it gets viruses - Polidicks

[img]http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/16/arstechnica.jpg[/img] [url=http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/a-virus-so-large-it-gets-viruses.ars]Source[/url] [release]Last year, researchers uncovered the largest virus yet discovered. With a genome that is over 700,000 base pairs long, the CroV virus has more DNA than some bacteria. Fortunately, it infects a small, unicellular organism that's very distantly related to humans. Now, the same research team is back, this time announcing that they've discovered a virus that attacks CroV, and may just have given rise to all transposable elements, sometimes known as jumping genes. While studying CroV, the researchers discovered a much smaller virus that frequently accompanied it. The new virus, which they term Mavirus (for "Maverick virus") is still a healthy size, as far as most viruses are concerned, weighing in at just over 19,000 DNA bases, and encoding 20 genes. But Mavirus never appeared on its own; instead, it was only active in cells when the larger CroV was around, even though it could enter cells on its own. The authors conclude that it probably steals CroV's copying machinery for making more Maviruses; this is consistent with the fact that CroV infections slow down when Mavirus is around. This isn't the first giant virus to be victimized by a smaller peer—there's even a term for this: virophage. But, when the authors looked at the 20 genes carried by Mavirus, they didn't look like the ones from another virophage; instead, they looked something like genes from a specific type of transposable element. Transposable elements, or transposons, are stretches of DNA that can move around the genome, hopping from place to place. They're so effective at this that about a third of the human genome is composed of various forms of transposons, which don't appear to do anything very helpful, but require energy to copy. The authors suggest, however, that transposons got their start by doing something useful. The Mavirus helps protect cells from CroV, so cells that permanently incorporate a copy into their genomes could be at a significant advantage. Once in the genome, however, the viral DNA would be free to evolve into something closer to a parasite. The authors predict that, if we look in the right places, we'll find virophages that correspond to most of the major families of transposons. [/release]

:ohdear:

Obligatory: [img]http://geekspodcast.com/geekpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/yo_dawg-230x300.jpg[/img] That's fairly interesting, despite me vowing to not want to study anything relating to biology again once I finished it in highschool.

Viruses getting viruses. The irony.

Thought this was about a computer virus being counter-virused in some way due to the title. Still cool though.

i hope it isn't contagious

That's really interesting. It's cool when you have really tiny things which are ridiculously huge compared to their peer group (see : [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_quark"]the top quark[/URL] - it's a subatomic particle with the mass of a gold atom.)

Ahahah fucking karma.

That's how Super-AIDS came to be

The microbial civil war has begun...

Its a virus within a virus! [img]http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Inception+Press+Conference+ye2_176yJx1l.jpg[/img]

Need to go deeper.

Yo' dawg, I heard you like- [QUOTE=Psychopath12;28424009]Obligatory: [img_thumb]http://geekspodcast.com/geekpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/yo_dawg-230x300.jpg[/img_thumb] That's fairly interesting, despite me vowing to not want to study anything relating to biology again once I finished it in highschool.[/QUOTE] -Oh.

:psyduck:

I loved biology, stuff like this is always interesting chemistry can suck a chode though

Okay. I thought computer virus at first. I admit it.

[QUOTE=Psychopath12;28424009]Obligatory: [img_thumb]http://geekspodcast.com/geekpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/yo_dawg-230x300.jpg[/img_thumb] That's fairly interesting, despite me vowing to not want to study anything relating to biology again once I finished it in highschool.[/QUOTE] This is what I had thought too.

Biology > Physics ya'll mad

[QUOTE=ken188;28426233]Biology > Physics ya'll mad[/QUOTE] Extremely so. Choose your weapon wisely, biologist. This will be a duel to the death.

The viruses are really messed up. Now they are messed up twice as much as they have their own viruses. I wonder if these will also get some of their own viruses.

Now they can know what it feels like. :colbert:

[QUOTE=Android phone;28425664]I loved biology, stuff like this is always interesting chemistry can suck a chode though[/QUOTE] dude physics all up in this bitch [editline]5th March 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=ken188;28426233]Biology > Physics ya'll mad[/QUOTE] Physics is the master science [editline]5th March 2011[/editline] page 1 and we are already arguing on which branch of science is best By the way, it is physics

Fuck Biology and Physics, Science is the best. :c00lbert:

Why argue over which branch of science is best? It's all necessary.

[QUOTE='[DJ Ria];28427579']Why argue over which branch of science is best? It's all necessary.[/QUOTE] I don't really need to be awesome at biology to be a mechanical engineer

[QUOTE='[DJ Ria];28427579']Why argue over which branch of science is best? It's all necessary.[/QUOTE] After all we know engineering is superior to all of them.

Science is simply a method at analyzing and interrogating the world around us. To say there is a "best" science is wrong because they are all important and intertwined with each other. Science is Science, and Science is [b][i]awesome![/i][/b]

Physics is still better.

And yet no medicine without chemistry and no understanding of our bodies without biology.

So transposons are like vestigial|incorporated|assimilated virophages in our DNA that used to help fight viruses for us?