A New Virus Discovered In the Human Gut
URL: http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/07/25/2014/a-newly-discovered-virus-that-lives-in-our-gut.html,
Audio is produced by: Alexa Lim
(Audio) Guest: Robert Edwards (Professor of Computer Science at San Diego University)
URL: http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-crassphage-previously-unknown-ancient-gut-virus-02098.html
Author: By Sci-News.com
Summary
This virus, CrAssphage has been just recently discovered by Robert Edwards and his team at San Diego University in San Diego, California. What is rather interesting is that this virus was not discovered in a lab, but rather by Edwards and his team of computer scientists. Researchers at the National Institute of Health provided large amounts of data entailing the genetic sequences of bacteria. It is within this data that this new CrAssphage was discovered. Edwards explains that about for every human cell, there is about 10 times the amount of bacteria; and for every bacteria, there is about 10 viruses. Viruses are important to the human body because they can regulate the bacteria in the humans. If there is too much bacteria, the viruses can take over the bacteria and kill them and make them have a smaller population. Humans are also not born with this virus, instead they acquire it over time. Researchers are still learning more about
Relevance
Viruses are linked to what we have discussed in school because the success of a virus is up to the density dependent factors. If the bacteria starts to have a dip in population, then the viruses will start to also have a dip in population. This virus helps people because if they have too much of this bacteria it could have a negative impact on the body. When the bacteria population increases, the virus will do its job and makes the population of the bacteria decrease. Viruses are also linked entirely to cells; which links to our current unit about cells. Viruses themselves cannot reproduce, however, they can "hijack" a cell and use that as a source of reproduction. The virus injects its own genetic material and overrides the defense systems of the cell, then when the cell reproduces, it produces the replicated virus instead of the cell.
How do humans acquire the virus? Is it in a certain food? If so, what food?
ReplyDeleteHow was the CrAssphange found through the data of the computer scientists?
ReplyDeleteThe computer scientists at San Diego University discovered the CrAssphage virus when looking through data taken by previous studies conducted about the human gut and noticed that there was a long cluster of DNA, about 97,000 base pairs long. When they checked to see what this was, they learned that it was a new virus.
ReplyDeleteThere have been experiments conducted on infant feces to tell if there is any sign of the virus, and there was not. Scientists know that CrAssphage is not an inherited virus, but they do not know how it is acquired through the lives of those who have it.