SCIENTISTS from Israel have ‘accidentally’ made a remarkable discovery that viruses could talk to one another.
Viruses generally hijack the “machinery” of bacterial cells and multiply themselves until the cells explode and die. In other instances, they simply inject their genetic material into the bacteria, stay dormant and multiply only when triggered by any environmental cues.
The team from Weizmann Institute of Sciences in Rehovot, Israel, led by Rotem Sorek(pix), had initially intended to study how bacteria communicate and alert each other of viral attacks. Bacterial communication, termed as “quorum sensing”, helps bacteria to behave accordingly, based on their surrounding population – which is often essential when it comes to dividing themselves or to infect their host. It is only by accident that Sorek and his colleagues spotted these chatty viruses.[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
According to Nature, the team discovered a viral protein, called arbitrium, which, in Latin, means “decision”. Sorek and team also believe that based on the levels of arbitrium, viruses then decide if they should kill their hosts or just inject their genome.
This is a smart move as it ensures that they don’t kill off their hosts altogether. “It does make a lot of sense”, Peter Fineran, a microbial geneticist from the University of Otago told Nature.
“If the phage is running out of hosts, it would try and limit its destruction, and sit quiet and wait for the host to re-establish growth,” he added.
Sorek’s team also found about 100 other arbitrium-like proteins from their experiment. ‘Phages broadcast in different frequencies. They speak in different languages and they can hear only the language that they speak’, Sorek told Nature.
The evidence of viral communication has excited scientists in the laboratory as this could lead to new ways to combat viruses.
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