from the how-about-a-horse-with-no-name? dept.
Scientists discover virus with no recognizable genes:
Viruses are some of the most mysterious organisms on Earth. They're among the world's tiniest lifeforms, and because none can survive and reproduce without a host, some scientists have questioned whether they should even be considered living things. Now, scientists have discovered one that has no recognizable genes, making it among the strangest of all known viruses. But how many viruses do we really know?
[...] The finds speak to "how much we still need to understand" about viruses, says one of the researchers, Jônatas Abrahão, a virologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte.
Abrahão made his discovery while hunting down giant viruses. These microbes—some the size of bacteria—were first discovered in amoebae in 2003. In a local artificial lake, he and his colleagues found not only new giant viruses, but also a virus that—because of its small size—was unlike most that infect in amoebae. They named it Yaravirus. (Yara is the "mother of waters" according to Indigenous Tupi-Guarani mythology.)
Hmm, perhaps Yaravirus hitched a ride in on Oumuamua.
Scientists discover virus with no recognizable genes, (DOI: 10.1126/science.abb2121)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 07 2020, @11:35PM
They probably just read the DNA backwards. Try feeding into the sequencer the other way around.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday February 08 2020, @12:37AM (2 children)
They're probably the cheap assed jeans you used to get at K-Mart, before they went under for selling sub-optimal stuff.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Saturday February 08 2020, @12:41AM
Falls Creek or Rustler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @12:41AM
I used to get jeans from k-mart, either Lee's or Levi's. Wranglers was beneath me even as a k-mart shopper.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @12:39AM (1 child)
There is a weasel term. Here is a sequence of DNA/RNA and we don't know what it does. As if we know most/much of what dna/rna does.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @09:06PM
Presumably it makes the proteins that the virus is composed of.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday February 08 2020, @12:55AM
Maybe they were actually jeggings [google.com.au]?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Troll) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday February 08 2020, @01:43AM (2 children)
Looking for giant viruses in a pond?
Easier to find starting with a certain orange virus all the way down through congress.
A troll a day keeps fake news at bay!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 3, Funny) by canopic jug on Saturday February 08 2020, @06:55AM
That's not a virus. That's the fruiting body of a fungus which has been growing since Reagan and Thatcher.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday February 08 2020, @06:19PM
The article's author is Elisabeth Pennis... just saying.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @03:40AM (5 children)
Many of you doesn't know what "gene" is, do you. I am nor sure either.
I barely know bit - DNA is made of helical string of A-T-C-U, RNA mates with them somehow, to code protein sequence or something. You follow me? If you don't, you are even more ignint than I am, and I am pretty damn ignint on biochemistry.
SN editors:
You don't bother editing out all the primitive background info on some IT tech, for which many SNers are quite familiar with, and yet you throw out bio/chem stuff with no explanation.
If you don't know what the post is about, why do you post it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @03:59AM (4 children)
The blurb is just that-a snapshot of the story
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @04:08AM (3 children)
Snapshot my ass.
These editors pile on obvious preliminary bullshit into a long-ass dragged-out summary on some bullshit "social science" nonsense, but on basic science posts, the summary is cryptic minimal bits. No wonder, they don't have a clue what they are posting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @04:18AM (2 children)
From what I recall editors saying they do the bare minimum when approving stories. That means the minimal summary was likely from the submitter and the approving editor thought it looked fine. They rarely go in depth and try to improve the summary themselves.
If someone wants to submit a story with a massive summary and lots of editorializing of their own then that is up to them. As long as it doesn't have the phrase "alt-right" in it the editors will likely just approve it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @04:48AM (1 child)
I suppose you can expect only so much from volunteers, especially in these days of social network ages.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 08 2020, @03:25PM
maybe they mean to say that they found a "giant" virus but they don't know who hosts it (replicates it)?
also, i believe a gen is a "sequence" on the DNA, like on a HDD: from this position until this position is the program "bash"?
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Wednesday February 12 2020, @10:29AM
Reporting on scientific papers is still as abysmal as it has always been. No where in the actual paper does it say the virus has "no recognizable genes."
Bolded is where I suspect this "no recognizable genes" nonsense comes from. ORFans are "orphan genes." From wikipedia:
Basically, they're just genes that are unique to the organism/infectious agent. They are still recognized genes.
So essentially it's just a virus with great phylogenetic differences compared to other viruses (think duck billed platypus vs other animals), not some unknowable alien critter.
The part with tRNAs that don't match commonly used codons, we do this in the lab already with bacteria to synthesize proteins with non-standard amino acids so it's not some super strange event. If you are curious start here: orthogonal tRNA & synthetases [wikipedia.org].
By the way the title of the paper is "A mysterious 80 nm amoeba virus with a near-complete “ORFan genome” challenges the classification of DNA viruses," not "Scientists discover virus with no recognizable genes." I really wish "journalists" would stop trying to Hollywood-ize all the scientific articles. Something like this is already really interesting to start with, no need to lie and blow things out of proportion for extra clicks.