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The world is inseparable from the virus
Release time：2023-03-23 16:24:40 source：korpimaankyynel.com author：Desert water source
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The world is inseparable from the virus
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATED PICTURES OF VIRUS: GUSTAVO CAETANO-ANOLLÉS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN; MYA BREITBART, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA; EDWARD CHUONG, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER Let us imagine a planet without viruses. The new crown pneumonia epidemic has disappeared, and the devil that has claimed millions of lives has disappeared. It must be heaven, right? Far from being the case, we cannot live without the virus, or even be born at all. BY DAVID QUAMMEN PHOTO: CRAIG CUTLER COMPILATIONS: WANG XIE, RED QUEEN As a zebra shark swims past, aquarium divers show an image of a bacteriophage, a type of virus that infects bacteria. In this aquarium's water, there are an estimated 5,320 trillion bacteriophages, which together can circle the earth eight times, are vital to a healthy marine ecosystem. PICTURES: CRAIG CUTLER, DOMINIK HREBÍK AND PAVEL PLEVKA, LABORATORY OF STRUCTURAL VIROLOGY, CEITEC, MASARYK UNIVERSITY, CZECH REPUBLIC We live in a world of viruses - an immeasurable variety and quantity. Many of these viruses are good for us rather than bad. Viruses fuel our evolution, bringing in a steady stream of new genes. Without the virus, the vast biodiversity of our planet would collapse like a wooden house pulling a nail out. How viruses turn decay into magic The first thing we need to know is that viruses have no life, because unlike animals, plants, bacteria and other organisms, they do not have cells. The structure of viruses is very simple. Each virus contains a piece of genetic genes (written in DNA or RNA), packaged in a protein shell called a capsid. Sometimes the outer layer of the capsid also has a membrane that protects it and helps the virus grab onto its prey, the cell. Viruses cannot reproduce by themselves, they can only enter a cell and use the function of the cell itself to replicate itself. A cross-section and three-dimensional model of the new coronavirus SARSCoV-2 is shown on the display of a cryogenic transmission electron microscope. PICTURES: ZUNLONG KE, LESLEY MCKEANE, AND JOHN BRIGGS, MRC LABORATORY OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Infected host cells produce many new viruses, while unfortunate cells are hollowed out and left with wreckage. So viruses make people sick. But, if the host cell is lucky, the virus doesn't do harm and just sits dormant in the cell, or writes its own genes into the host's genome. Electron microscope picture of one of the deadliest viruses, Ebola. These green filaments are viruses, swarming out of the cell. PHOTO: CALLISTA IMAGES We usually think of viruses as bad guys, they cause new coronary pneumonia and many other diseases, people call viruses "protein-wrapped bad news". Patrick Forterre of the Pasteur Institute in France has a different idea. He believes that bugs brought by viruses will become features, turning corruption into magic. Some of the greatest innovations in evolutionary history have been associated with viruses. This is the lung of a little girl who died of measles in Berlin's Charité hospital in 1912. The oldest known measles virus genome was found in her lungs, providing evidence of measles transmission from cattle to humans in the fourth century BC. Image: MARKUS BACHMANN Forte believes that the previous definition of a "virus" was inadequate, and we think a virus is dead because we see this small clump of proteins and DNA as "a virus". The virus itself is like a seed that looks lifeless. Seeds can only grow into plants when they are planted in the soil. Viruses can only be rejuvenated by using the mechanism of cells to replicate themselves. Viruses come to life when they live inside cells. It's a very delicate process, in which infected cells act like zombies, following the instructions of the virus, reading the viral genome and making more viruses. In this horrific process, the genes of the virus brought innovation to evolution. An artificially colored photo of the coronavirus. Image: NIAID An innovation comes from the arms race between viruses and cells. Viruses have evolved new means to break through cells, and cells have also evolved defensive means to respond, such as cell walls and nuclei as "city walls". This competitive process makes cells increasingly complex. The molecular model of the "thorns" on the surface of the new coronavirus, with a blue layer on the surface, are molecules similar to glycans. These molecules disguise the new coronavirus so that the body's immune system cannot detect the virus. They are key to developing vaccines. Photo: MATEUSZ SIKORA, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF BIOPHYSICS Another innovation is the "mutual plagiarism" of genes. The virus will get the gene from the host cell and add it to its own gene, and the host cell will also get the new gene from the virus. This phenomenon is called horizontal gene transfer. Fortell believes that most of the genetic diversity of organisms comes from viruses. How do we know how many viruses are in the water? Filter the water with a 0.02-micron filter to catch bacteria and viruses in the water, and then use a DNA-binding dye to stain the bacteria and viruses, and finally view them through a fluorescence microscope. The little dots we see are bacteria and viruses. PHOTO: ALEXANDRA RAE SANTORA Without a virus, we can all be born Virologist Thierry Heidmann has an even more startling discovery: a class of viruses that we see as the most evil can actually matter whether we are born or not . Such viruses are called retroviruses, and their genes are written in RNA molecules. They are cunning and can rewrite their own RNA into DNA and insert them into the genes of the host cell. The HIV virus that causes AIDS is a retrovirus that writes genes into the genes of human immune cells. Once the genes of the virus are activated to produce a large amount of HIV virus, the human immune cells are finished, so AIDS patients will die of a weakened immune system, unable to resist infection and cancer. A Neanderthal skull. Our Homo sapiens ancestors mixed with Neanderthals, and scientists have discovered 152 genes we inherited from Neanderthals that help fight new viruses we encounter. Photo: RÉMI BÉNAL retroviruses invade biological cells, resulting in 8% of our human genomes are the genes left over from retroviruses. You can say that the human genome is the cemetery of viruses. Heideman's research object is a gene called Syncytin, whose Chinese name is Syncytin. They were originally derived from retroviruses, and their role was to help the outer membrane of the virus fuse with cells. Now they have been used by humans to help human cells fuse. The Syncytin gene is involved in building a special tissue that acts as a mediator between mother and fetus, allowing nutrients and oxygen in and waste and carbon dioxide out. Its name is placenta. The virus infected mammals as early as 150 million years ago, leading to the creation of the placenta. Since then, mammals can walk around with their children and are not easily killed by predators. PICTURES: CRAIG CUTLER, LENNART NILSSON, TT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY (FETUS AT 16 WEEKS) This is just one example on the viral credits. There is also a human gene from the virus, called HERV-K, that may protect embryos or control embryonic development. In short, we would not have been born without the great help of retroviruses. This small green ball is an early human embryo, and the part stained green is where the HERV-K gene exists. Picture: MARK WOSSIDLO, STANFORD UNIVERSITY/MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA Another gene called ARC plays a role in the neural network of the brain, allowing our brain to generate memory. The ARC gene is also derived from the retrovirus gene, which was first used to make the protein capsid of the virus. Thanks to these "returned" viruses, you can remember that viruses are not all bad guys, they are an integral part of our lives. Neuroscientist Jason Shepherd holds a drawing of a 3D reconstruction of a "pocket" of proteins. This "pocket" is made by the ARC gene, which comes from bacteria. The original protein "pocket" it made was used to protect genes from viruses, but now it is used to transmit genetic information between neurons in the brain. PICTURES: CRAIG CUTLER, SIMON ERLENDSSON, MRC LABORATORY OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, ROBERT CLARK
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