Forced union. Scientists have recorded how the virus attacked and enslaved another virus (photo)

Having discovered a similar behavior that has never been observed before, scientists have also learned that such a imposed union has been practiced in pairs of viruses for over 100 million years. In the modern world, viruses seem to be particularly successful in infection of people with the most amazing images. But science was more interested in the potential of viruses to infect other viruses.

This may seem like a scientific and fantastic scenario, but a group of experts from Maryland University in Baltimore (Umob) has recently discovered a real case that is not so far from a similar situation. Their discovery was a virus that clings to another virus, which has never been observed before, pys. org. In focus, technology appeared its Telegram channel.

Subscribe to not miss the most info and interesting news from the world of science! Usually, viruses are engaged in their activity, infecting the owner - a person, an animal or even a bacterial cell. But some viruses known as satellites need little help. In their life cycle, they depend not only on the owner, but also on another virus called the assistant. Imagine a satellite virus as a younger brother who needs an older brother to get into a session where an adult is needed.

The assistant can help build a protective shell or create more copies of your DNA. Scientists knew that satellite viruses should be near their assistant friends, but have never seen one of them attaches to the other. Everything has changed when the team of the UMOB with the assistance of colleagues from Washington University in St. Louis found a tiny satellite virus, which constantly clings to its assistant in a very specific place.

Thanks to the powerful electron microscopes and the vigilant eye, Dr. Tagide Decarllo saw that in most helper viruses, the satellite adhered directly to the "neck"-the area where the virus head connects with the tail. Some of those helper viruses who did not have a full satellite still had tiny antennae of the virus, similar to traces that can be obtained after a small bite. This discovery caught everyone by surprise.

"When I saw it, I just couldn't believe it," said Decarlogo, who was the first to report this unusual attachment. But why the neck? And why do these viruses cling to their relatives in general? The team had a guess. Usually, the satellite viruses have a gene that enables them to penetrate the owner's DNA and plant to him when the owner and assistant accidentally intersect. But the satellite revealed by students of the UMOB and named Miniflayer had no such gene.

Therefore, he had to stay next to his Mindflayer assistant every time he invaded the owner's cell, otherwise he could not survive. It is like having a friend with a VIP crossing for all concerts in the city-if you want to get, it is better to stay closer to it. If you dig deeper, the researchers found that Mindflayer and Miniflayer have evolved together for a very long time - possibly over 100 million years.

This suggests that it is not a single case, but of more large -scale viruses against viruses than we could assume. However, this big find could not happen. It all started with a standard university project, in which students find and study bacteriophages (bacteria viruses) in environmental samples. When the sequencing laboratory mentioned the possible pollution of the sample, it could be the end of history.

But the Womb team checked again, sent samples to the second sequencing cycle and got amazing results. If they were not able to see the viruses closely, they could never show this strange behavior. Now, with new knowledge, a number of new questions arise.

How is the satellite attached to its assistant? Is this a common phenomenon in the world of viruses? This discovery may even mean that some past studies, rejected because of "pollution", were in fact the flashes of other assistant satellite systems. For the scientific community, it is not just a curiosity - it can change our views on viruses and their complex social life. And who knows? Understanding these viral interactions can one day lead to new ways to combat disease.

And the work of the team is just the beginning. Earlier, Focus wrote that scientists intentionally infected people with a mutagenic Zika virus in trying to find a vaccine. Although the virus does not pose a direct danger to an adult, its horrible consequence is microcephaly in future newborns of women who have become infected. Focus also wrote about what threatens humanity a new strain of coronavirus called Pyrol.