The world’s most unusual viruses also have one of the most unusual effects on host cells. A working group led by Mart Krupowitz of the Pasteur Institute in Paris found the organism to be unicellular Sulfolobus Islandicus It swells to 20 times its original diameter when infected with STSV2. As mentioned by the PNAS Working Group:STSV2 suppresses parts of the cell division mechanism SelfulopsSo that it continues to grow. After all, the giant unicellular organism has 8,000 times its original size and has become a mega virus factory that continuously expels STSV2-shaped lemon-shaped particles.
The team found that the victim could fend for herself. With the help of CRISPR-Cas. The infected giant cell continues to reproduce by dividing normal-sized cells – and it can give its offspring an antiviral gift. The original function of the CRISPR-Cas “genetic clipper” is to cut up the viral genetic material that penetrates the cell. To do this, the cell must carry a portion of the virus genome in the CRISPR region of its genome. He owns a SelfulopsIf the immune system develops CRISPR, the infected giant cell passes the virus file to its normal-sized offspring, thus it is protected from infection.
STSV2 is one of the most mysterious organisms. Already the host object Sulfolobus Islandicus It belongs to archaea, the mysterious sister group of bacteria to this day, which is both acidophilic and thermophilic: they survive in harsh conditions of acidic hot springs at temperatures around 80 ° C. The viruses that attack these organisms are more strange. Several of the virus families discovered in the archaea have no genetic connection whatsoever to the bacterial and eukaryotic viruses. Often their virus envelopes have unusual shapes – STSV2 viral particles are strangely similar to a lemon – and the effect on host cells is quite strange. As Kropowitz and his team write, they only found one other virus that causes a similar effect.
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