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Yep, that's correct. There are a lot of things that biologists tend to believe are out there, but are waiting for examples, which makes these kinds of discoveri
by koeng 7y ago
Yep, that's correct. There are a lot of things that biologists tend to believe are out there, but are waiting for examples, which makes these kinds of discoveries very pleasant surprises.
For example, it could kinda be assumed that we would find a phage that contained a CRISPR, and that turned out to be correct (it uses it to target other phages that infect the same host cell).
Another fun example is a reverse-transcription based replicating plasmid found in a fungal mitochondria. Theoretically it was possible, but that madlad did it.
A phage that I assume exists is one that replicates via reverse-transcription, but that hasn't been found yet. I hope they find it soon!
- ampdepolymerase 7y agoNot to mention this sort of discoveries are so common now that it would be lucky to get a mention in top journals like Nature and Science at all. The incentives for biology is still deeply traditional; new, interesting, or novel discoveries do not necessarily get well rewarded at all. The biology research and development system strongly favors academia politics and close sourced large corporations.
- itsgrimetime 7y agodo you have links to reading about these? I'm curious but can't figure out search terms to find them myself
- koeng 7y agoSorry for late response, but here is for the reverse transcriptase plasmid - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VS_ribozyme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VS_ribozyme Here's for phage CRISPR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2007-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2007-4