Research published today in Nature has found that many of the viruses infecting us today have ancient evolutionary histories that date back to the first vertebrates and perhaps the first animals in existence.
[...] The researchers discovered 214 novel RNA viruses (where the genomic material is RNA rather than DNA) in apparently healthy reptiles, amphibians, lungfish, ray-finned fish, cartilaginous fish and jawless fish.
"This study reveals some groups of virus have been in existence for the entire evolutionary history of the vertebrates -- it transforms our understanding of virus evolution," said Professor Eddie Holmes, of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases & Biosecurity at the University of Sydney.
"For the first time we can definitely show that RNA viruses are many millions of years old, and have been in existence since the first vertebrates existed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @04:45AM
Orphan viruses (ones that cause no apparent disease) are nothing new. RNA viruses are nothing new.
From the original abstract, what the researchers did was compare the gene sequences of these different viruses to graph their evolution, based on the presumption that they evolved along side the individual species they live in.
Not totally rock solid, but interesting.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday April 06 2018, @04:45AM
But it can mutate into a different virus that fills their body cavities with a viscous liquid
Cricket was just fine when that liquid was in her abdomen.
I was completely convinced she wasn't really spayed - nudge nudge wink wink
So I took her to the vet for some prenatal care he give me the bad news. A test confirmed it
Even so she did just fine until in just a day it got into her brain
I have her ashes and a brick tile with her footprint
Sometime soon I'm going to ask the animal shelter for the cat that's been there the longest
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday April 06 2018, @05:58AM
They discovered that ARN based viruses existed for at least at long as the vertebrates.
How does this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday April 06 2018, @06:20AM
What seems to me to have been shown is that certain RNA viruses have evolved to attack a wide range of species....apparently all vertebrates. This could have happened because it evolved from attacking their common ancestor, but it could also have evolved in one species and spread.
Since these are RNA viruses we can be pretty sure it has a very high mutation rate. This would probably make the "molecular clock" useless over a few dozen millennia. Only strongly selected portions of the genome would be preserved, and those are selected for functional reasons, so even independent evolution isn't out of the question, though rather unlikely unless it's a pretty small chunk.
OTOH, I don't have a subscription to Nature, so I'm working from the summary and general principles.
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