A team of Spanish scientists has discovered that the infectious bursal disease virus , considered a living fossil , has an unusual structure: its capsid , the container for the pathogen's genetic material, is larger than it would need to survive on its journey between infected and infected.
? The finding was shocking, since it could seem like an unprecedented natural waste throughout biological evolution ,? explains José Ruiz Castón, researcher at the National Center for Biotechnology of the CSIC and co-author of the study. ? However, the research reveals that this behavior allows the virus to increase its infective capacity , since with a larger capsid it can store a greater quantity of infective nucleic acid ,? he adds.
The capsid of unusual dimensions, which is described in the latest issue of the journal PNAS , can be explained from the point of view of the evolution of viruses. ? This particularity could have made it easier for the virus to sequester and genetic information from the cells it infects or from other microorganisms, thus promoting its evolution towards more complex viral models ,? indicates Castón. The infectious bursal disease virus thus becomes a ? Missing link? between different families of viruses.
