Bacteria in your body can intercept viral RNA

A team of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin, the Stanford University School of Medicine and two other research institutions has unearthed bacteria’s ability to recognize and intercept viruses, utilizing a mechanism involving RNA.

The new defense mechanism was discovered in Marinomonas mediterranea, a type of bacteria commonly found in the ocean. It’s from a family of microbes called Gammaproteobacteria, a class of bacteria that includes many pathogens that affect humans and cause diseases like cholera, plague, lung infections and food poisoning.

This new mechanism is similar to another virus-fighting system called the CRISPR/Cas system that allows bacteria to capture foreign DNA. The discovery of this new mechanism may enable researchers to better fight viruses that threaten agricultural crops and dairy products.

The team of scientists has found that bacteria can take pieces of RNA contained in unwanted viruses in our body and incorporate these pieces within their own RNA. This acts as a mug shot that allows the bacteria to recognize the same virus in the future so that the bacteria is able to interfere with the virus’s detrimental activities.

The discovery has exciting implications, as scientists may be able to genetically engineer crops like tomatoes, which have this mechanism. In doing so, the plant will be equipped with a “virus detector” of sorts and will be able to fight off unwanted pathogens.

“Combining these plants with the environment that they face, be it natural or involving the application of herbicides, insecticides or fungicides, could lead to the discovery of how pathogens are getting to these plants and what potential vectors could be,” Georg Mohr, a research associate at UT Austin and first co-author of the paper, said in a press release.

Cheese and yogurt bacterial defense mechanisms could be strengthened with this new discovery, as both dairy products are commonly infected by viruses. Viruses that affect these products, and other dairy items, often prevent the production process from going to completion. Dairy bacteria, similar to agricultural bacteria, could be genetically engineered to record viral interactions in order to prevent future attacks.