mysterious giant viruses
--Must See--

Bioinformatics Summer Internship 2024 With Hands-On-Training + Project / Dissertation - 30 Days, 3 Months & 6 Months Duration

Mysterious Giant Viruses Discovered After 30,000 Years In Permafrost

Many giant viruses have been unearthed in the last few years in numerous of the globe’s most mysterious areas, from the thawing permafrost of Siberia to places unidentified underneath the Antarctic ice. These are still a science fiction so no need to worry as of now.

Scientists from Michigan State University shed light on these enigmatic, yet captivating gigantic microbes and how they infect cells – vital aspects of the process. This research study established a dependable model for studying mysterious giant viruses using advanced imaging modern technologies, and this is the first to identify as well as to characterize several crucial proteins responsible for orchestrating infection.

The size of giant viruses is larger than 300 nm and can survive for numerous centuries. In contrast, the rhinovirus responsible for the cold is about 30 nm.

Kristin Parent, Principal investigator, Associate professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, MSU said, “Giant viruses are gargantuan in complexity and size”. “The giant viruses discovered in Siberia after 30,000 years in permafrost still retained the ability to infect.”

The capsids or external shells are sturdy and can hold up against rough environments, safeguarding the viral

genome. The external shells the species assessed in this study are mimivirus, Antarctica virus, Samba virus, and the newly uncovered Tupanviruses are formed like a twenty-sided die or icosahedral.

These viral species release their viral genome using a unique mechanism. Atop of one of the outer shell vertices, a starfish-shaped seal is present. This special vertex is referred to as the ‘stargate’. To release the viral genome during infection the ‘starfish’ and ‘stargate’ opens up.

Kristin Parent said, throughout the research, several obstructions required to be resolved. “It’s hard to image giant viruses due to the previous research studies depend on discovering the ‘one-in-a-million’ virus in the correct infection state and size”.

Jason Schrad, Parent’s graduate student developed a unique method for simulating infection phases to overcome the above-mentioned problem. Parent’s team subjected different species to a selection of harsh chemical and environmental therapies developed to simulate conditions a virus might experience throughout the infection using the university’s new Cryo-Electron microscope (Cryo-EM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Parent said, “We could examine viruses and protein structures at the atomic degree and to capture them in action using Cryo-EM”. “Accessibility to this technology is really essential and new doors are opening for study on campus with the new microscope at MSU”.

3 environmental conditions that efficiently generated stargate opening are low pH, high salt, and high temperature were revealed in this study results. A lot more, a different phase of infection was induced at each condition.

Parent’s team made a model to effectively and reliably simulate phases of infection for research with this new data. Parent said, “Now this new model permits scientists to resemble the stages reliably and with high frequency, considerably streamlining virus researches and opening the door for future researches”.

Several novel findings were yielded with this research. Parent said, “We found that the starfish seal over the stargate site slowly unzips while continuing to be affixed to the capsid rather than simply releasing simultaneously”. “In our understanding of virology, the description of a new giant virus genome release method represents an additional paradigm shift.”

The scientists studied the proteins released during the first stage by the virus with the ability to continually recreate different stages of infection. The proteins work as workers, managing the many biological procedures required for a virus to infect and to make copies of itself by hijacking a cell’s reproductive capacities.

Parent said, “To assign putative or assumed roles to lots of proteins with formerly unidentified functions, the outcomes of this study will be helpful – highlighting the power of this new invention. “We recognized crucial proteins released throughout the preliminary stages of infection used for mediating the process and complete the viral takeover.”

He added, “The prime candidates for future study are the exact functions of most of these proteins and how they orchestrate giant viruses”. “Almost of the proteins we identified matched proteins that one would anticipate being released during the viral infections’ preliminary phases. The in vitro phases generated in this research study are reflective of those that occur in vivo phases, which substantially supports our hypothesis”.

Many of the various giant virus types studied responded in a similar way in vitro which led the scientists to believe that most likely they all share similar proteins and common characteristics.

An evolving topic of discussion amongst virologist is ‘unlike the coronavirus whether giant viruses are capable of infecting humans‘.

Author: Sruthi S