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Virus stole poison genes from black widow spider
- kyled 10y agoVery cool!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- smmnyc 10y agoIt took me way too long to realize the article was not referring to a computer virus.
- Mtinie 10y agoI didn't see anything in the article that referenced this, but why is the assumption being made that the virus acquired the genes from black widows and not the other way around?
- inimino 10y agoFor one thing, it's a lot easier and more common for the transfer to go in that direction. If you think about the life cycles and what would have to happen in each case, one is just a lot more likely than the other.
- sohkamyung 10y agoThis article by Ed Yong in The Atlantic contains the following paragraph about this [1]: It’s possible that the spiders got the latrotoxin gene from the virus, or that the two evolved their copies independently. But by comparing the various versions of latrotoxin, the Bordensteins think that it’s most likely that the virus got the gene from spiders. It certainly had the right opportunity, since Wolbachia, its host microbe, does indeed infect black widows. The phage could have picked up spider DNA directly from the creature’s own cells. Or Wolbachia could have picked up spider DNA and then transferred it to the phage. Or other as-yet-unidentified viruses and bacteria could have acted as intermediaries. - [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-virus-with-spider-dna/503585/ http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-virus...
- SturgeonsLaw 10y agoUnless the virus injected the gene into the black widows' gametes, the introduced gene would leave the spider population when that individual spider died. It's possible, but lowers the odds of an already unlikely process. Meanwhile, viruses slurp up DNA from their hosts all the time.
- phyzome 10y agoWell, many Wolbachia infect the gonads of their hosts...
- Herodotus38 10y agoRobert Weinberg's The Biology of Cancer has a great chapter on the early history of cancer research and its connection with virology and a chance occurrence leading to discovery. There was a chicken breeder who noticed that some of his birds were getting tumors and he brought them to Rous, who exposed healthy bird cells to an extract of the tumor. He was able to figure out that in this case cancer was being transmitted by a virus. Later analysis showed that the virus itself doesn't cause cancer, but that this particular strain was "lucky" and picked up an oncogene (basically took a normal tyrosine kinase gene that is involved in the cell cycle from a chicken and incorporated it into the virus, making cell replication more rapid). This happens all the time with retroviruses in the wild. I find it interesting because the key to the virus' ability to cause tumors actually lies in using the normal cells' own machinery. Sort of like uncovering an ancient archeological site and decoding a text only to see it is about your civilization!
- contingencies 10y agoSort of like uncovering an ancient archeological site and decoding a text only to see it is about your civilization! Sounds like a great premise for a roguelike :)
- dmoy 10y agoIsn't something roughly like this the premise of Stephen Baxter's manifold trilogy? Idk, it's been awhile...
- tuomosipola 10y agoDon't forget about the dog that decided to become cancer: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/18/contagious-dog-cancer-batteries/ http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/18/contagiou...
- botexpert 10y agoSimilar to bovine leukaemia virus causing around 37% of breast cancer.
- sidcool 10y agoEvolution has some very interesting ways to increase chances of survival. Still most of the species that ever lived are extinct today. Those alive have beaten great odds. Viruses are the enigma of evolution. Are they just chemicals, or living?
- thaumasiotes 10y ago> Still most of the species that ever lived are extinct today. Depends on your view of the Ship of Theseus.
- lappa 10y agoWe wouldn't be able to mate with Nakalipithecus nakayamai, so they are indeed a distinct species despite being our ancestor.
- thaumasiotes 10y agoBy this criterion, there are very, very few bacterial species.
- Scarblac 10y agoOr rather, each bacterium is its own species?
- thaumasiotes 10y agoWhy? Bacteria exchange DNA with each other.
- manifestsilence 10y agoI seem to recall this being the reason the sexual reproduction definition of species is considered problematic. It's a convenient definition for animals but breaks down for most other things, and even the animal kingdom has some funky edge cases, like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebroid.
- OrthoMetaPara 10y ago> The researchers think the virus uses latrotoxin to enter animal cells and reach the bacteria that it targets. How would it do that? The phage can't synthesize latrotoxin itself, so it would need to instruct its bacterial host to produce it. Can bacteria even produce this toxin properly, with all proper post-translational modifications? Secondly, how is it even obtaining the spider DNA when it infects the bacteria. I've heard of viruses packing extra nucleic acid from their hosts into their particulate forms when they replicate, but how does the spider DNA get into the bacteria so that this can happen?
- theparanoid 10y agoPost translationally processing is done by the eukaryotic host cell. The section "Toxin activation by eukaryotic furin cleavage" has details - http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13155 http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13155.
- cronjobber 10y ago> "genetic theft" ... "chunks of arachnid DNA were probably stolen" ...wrote the journalist who also moonshines as RIAA pamphleteer? (I find it more illuminating to think of the gene being the active party, hitching a ride on a new vehicle.)
- jacquesm 10y agoInteresting. So, would that count as prior art for any patents that are based on moving genetic material from one organism to another?
- codereflection 10y agoTangent: It's venom, not poison.
- dredmorbius 10y agoOh, look at what the cat drug in! You pedantic use-the-word-wright peoples make me nauseous. ;-)
- codereflection 10y agoGlad to upset you. ;]
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dredmorbius 10y agoI see what you did there. Though I believe it's I who should be upsetting you.
- codereflection 10y agoOne can try...
- GnarfGnarf 10y agoWouldn't "copied" be more appropriate? Unless the spider has patented or copyrighted the genes.