Novel Virus With 90% “Never Found Before” Genes Discovered

New Virus With No Recognizable Genes Found In Brazil

Scientists are still debating whether viruses are actually life forms or not, as they cannot reproduce or live outside a host organism. They are some of the world’s smallest organisms.

Scientists are now worried about a new form of virus, as they have no recognizable genes. These viruses, smaller than the usual viruses that infect amoeba, were collected from the amoeba in an artificial lake.

The scientists named the mysterious virus as “Yaravirus” after Yara, meaning the “mother of all waters.” Yara, also known as “Iara,” represents a beautiful mermaid-like figure from Brazilian mythology who would lure sailors underwater to live with her forever.

Scientists discovered that 90% of the virus’s genome was formed of ”never found before” genes when they did a whole-genome sequencing to determine the complete DNA sequence of the virus.

“Here we report the discovery of Yaravirus, a new lineage of the amoebal virus with a puzzling origin and phylogeny,” wrote the team behind the discovery of new virus with no recognizable genes in the open-access bioRxiv biological sciences website.

The genome sequencing results of the

new virus indicate how much we still need to understand about viruses, said Jônatas Abrahão, a virologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Brazil

Professor Abrahão also informed that some of the virus’s genes are similar to those in a giant virus, but how they are related is not clear yet. Giant viruses are viruses possessing a huge capsid, unlike regular viruses.

The Yaravirus does not look like a giant virus due to its comparatively smaller size, composed as it is of small 80 nm-sized particles. Only six genes in the genome have a distant resemblance with known genes documented in public scientific databases.

The features of the novel virus’s existence are now being investigated by Professor Abrahão and his colleagues.