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How New Viruses Evolve and Might Become Deadly

A research team at Michigan State University (MSU) has demonstrated how a new virus evolves - shedding light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The scientists showed how the virus called 'Lambda' evolved to find a new way to attack host cells, an innovation that took four mutations to accomplish. This virus infects bacteria, in particular the common E. coli bacterium. Lambda isn't dangerous to humans, but this research demonstrated how viruses evolve complex and potentially deadly new traits, noted Justin Meyer, an MSU graduate student who worked on the research with Richard Lenski, MSU Hannah Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

Topics:
Medical Research Lab

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 [Music] we know that viruses are just a number of mutations away from evolving very deadly traits and that number can be very small new research at Michigan State shows how a virus called Lambda can evolve a new way to attack eoli bacteria and it took a mere four mutations to do it in just 12 days the Lambda virus isn't dangerous to humans

    00:00:27 but others can be the bird flu it's recently found out is five mutations away from spreading between different humans so how might those mutations occur most people when they think about Evolution think about museums and fossils which are records of evolution in the past but there are systems where one can actually watch Evolution as it plays out in real time microbial systems

    00:00:49 with bacteria and viruses have many generations every single day so it's possible to watch The evolutionary changes as they unfold at an NSF Science and Technology Center Meer and lensy demonstrated how the Lambda virus evolves new ways to attack its host a step towards understanding how other viruses might do the same Lambda is known to exploit just one receptor on

    00:01:14 the outer membrane of e col a protein called lamb B take away that protein and this would pressure the the the Fage the virus to Target something new about the cell and to enter the cell through a completely new pathway which it did quickly targeting a simp protein called ampf so now it's able to attach to ampf and inject its DNA into the cell through ampf evolving a new way to attack the

    00:01:40 bacteria and it took just four mutations a fluke we saw this happen in front of our eyes it happened repeatably and we were able to examine how it happened and figure out why it happened shedding new light on how under the right conditions the Aven flu or other viruses might evolve new functions new abilities even deadly new [Music]

    00:02:12 traits