WIKIMEDIA, KEN THOMASInterrogating the genome of the WO phage, a widespread bacteria-infecting virus, researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, have unveiled a few surprises, including sequences that relate to the black widow’s spiders deadly latrotoxin.
“Discovering DNA related to the black widow spider toxin gene came as a total surprise because it is the first time that a phage . . . has been found carrying animal-like DNA,” Vanderbilt University’s Seth Bordenstein, who published the results with his wife and coauthor Sarah Bordenstein this week (October 11) in Nature Communications, said in a press release. The duo also found that bits of WO DNA shared sequence similarity with other animal genomes, including a gene involved in sensing pathogens and triggering cell death, as well as immune-evasion genes. “These sequences are more typical of eukaryotic viruses, not phages,” Seth Bordenstein said.
“It’s the first report of a virus infecting multiple domains of life,” Elizabeth McGraw, a Wolbachia specialist at Monash University ...
