The virus lived underground in an artificial reservoir.
Humanity, already frightened by the new 2019-nCoV coronavirus, an infectious agent of unknown origin, has once again got a reason to worry. The ScienceAlert portal, citing a specialized medical publication that appeared on the bioRxiv preprint site, spoke about the mysterious inhabitant of the artificial lake Pampulha in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte (Lake Pampulha, an artificial lake in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte). It, as they say, was separated by Brazilian and French scientists, led by Bernard La Scola from the University of Aix-Marseille (Aix-Marseille University in France) and Jonatas S. Abrahao from the Federal University of Minas Gerai (Brazil's Federal University of Minas Gerais).
The catchers ranked their prey as viruses, named Yaravirus (Yaravirus brasiliensis) after Yara - the mistress of the waters from South American myths. And to their surprise they discovered: more than 90 percent of the genes of this Yaravirus itself are unknown to science - they have not yet been described anywhere. That is, scientifically speaking, they are orphan or orphan. This was confirmed by the analysis of more than 8500 genomes of known infectious agents.
Yaravirus in amoeba.
Scientists even reflected their surprise in the title of a scientific article, calling the detected virus mysterious (A mysterious 80 nm amoeba virus with a near-complete "ORFan genome").
Yaravirus brasiliensis is about 8 times larger than "normal" viruses "- its diameter is 80 nanometers. And, according to the discoverers, they attack only amoebas - marine and freshwater. Although in shape, which can be clearly seen in the picture, which was published by scientists, Yaravirus is the same crumpled ball as its brother with a corona - the notorious coronavirus. The question is, where did this come from? There is no clear answer yet.
Coronavirus in humans.
Strangest: Yaravirus is remarkably similar to the one that French scientists discovered a few years ago off the coast of Chile. And the Chilean virus had genes unknown to science - about the same amount, but it was a giant - 1000 nanometers in diameter. Yarovirus, not small in itself, is a dwarf by comparison. Reduced copy. Perhaps, it appeared during the evolution of a giant.
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Aren't there mysterious viruses from Mars?
Pandora virus (Pandoravirus) is the so-called "animal" discovered in 2011 in seawater off the coast of Chile and in one of the freshwater ponds in
Australia. It was discovered by microbiologists under the leadership of Jean-Michel Claverie, all from the same University of Aix-Marseille
The virus of an unprecedented size - 1000 nanometers (one micrometer) - was visible in a conventional, not in an electron microscope.
As it turned out then, the genome of the Pandora virus is not typical for terrestrial organisms. Only about 6 percent of its constituent genes were known to science. Almost like Yaravirus.
Scientists are still at a loss. Some even joke: what if the Pandora virus is of extraterrestrial origin? Somehow I got to our planet from Mars. For example, with meteorites. Which is considered by no means a joke assumption. Naturally, I came to a time when there was still life on Mars.
By the way, Pandora, like his smaller brother Yaravirus, are not independent creatures. It reproduces only in the host's cells, eating them away and copying itself. The owners of both are amoebas.
The giant of the microcosm: Pandora virus. Also out of this world - 94 percent.
Pandora virus in amoeba.
According to one of the semi-fantastic hypotheses, genomes so strange for our planet both Pandora virus and Yaravirus acquired at the expense of the DNA of their victims. And if so, then those genes unknown to science may well belong to some alien organisms. For example, those that once inhabited Mars.
From the encouraging: in the intervening time, scientists have not found evidence that the Pandora virus poses a threat to humanity. Most likely, the currently identified Yaravirus is not dangerous. And nevertheless, somehow it is not calm from such finds.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY