This Virus Shouldn't Exist (But it Does)

hidden in the microverse all around you there's  a merciless war being fought by the true rulers   of this planet microorganisms amoeba protists  bacteria archaea and fungi compete for resources   and space and then there are the strange horrors  that are viruses hunting everyone else not even   alive they are the tiniest most abundant and  deadliest beings on earth killing trillions every   day not interested in resources only in living  things to take over also we thought turns out   there are giant viruses that blur the line between  life and death and other viruses hunting them considerably smaller than your cells or even  bacteria viruses are nothing but a hull a tiny   bit of genetic material and a few proteins no  metabolism no way to propel themselves no will   or ambition they float around aimlessly and hope  to stumble upon a victim to infect and take over   viruses are so simple that we're not sure  if they should count as living things or not   some scientists argue viruses are alive others  think that the cells they infect are the actual   living viruses hybrid organisms called viral  cells and the viral particles are more like seeds   or spores and many others think viruses are just  dead material the origin of viruses is a mystery   because how can something that needs victims  to make more of itself emerge in the first   place there are many ideas viruses may have been  essential steps in the emergence of life or maybe   they started out as escaped dna from cells that  became really good at making copies of themselves   maybe they are the descendants of truly lazy  parasites that let others do all the work for   them the current thinking is that viruses probably  emerged multiple times from different origins   but we simply don't know for sure yet whatever the  truth is viruses are the most successful beings on   this planet there's an estimated 10 000 billion  billion billion viruses on earth if we put them   all next to each other they would stretch for 100  million light years 500 milky way galaxies wide   very recently viruses became even weirder  when scientists found a completely new type   giant viruses nicknamed gyrus not only did it  break all sorts of records but questioned many   assumptions we had about their nature gyruses  even come with their own parasites virophages   viruses that hunt other viruses which seemingly  makes no sense at all and since we identified the   first one in 2003 it seems like these giants  are everywhere we look in the oceans in water   towers in the guts of pigs and the mouths of  humans and they're even weirder than we thought   gyruses look funny like hairy geometric  forms or mini pickles much larger than   all viruses we knew before which explains how  they could hide in plain sight for centuries   scientists saw them under their microscopes  and just thought they had to be bacteria   it's like suddenly discovering there  are elephant-sized ducks everywhere   most gyruses we've found so far hunt amoebi and  other single-celled beings when they find a victim   they connect with it and use its natural processes  to enter the cell like all viruses their goal is   to misappropriate the victim's infrastructure and  procreate imagine a mouse crawling into your mouth   and using your guts and bones and  fat tissue to build a mouse factory   the gyrus unloads its attack proteins and genetic  material and rearranges the cell from the inside   its structural elements protein production  machinery and large amounts of mitochondria   for energy are changed to become an actual  factory called viroplasm some gyruses even   construct a membrane to shield them from the  cell's antiviral defenses once finished the   viroplasm begins to assemble new gyruses using  the victim up from the inside until it's filled up   finally the invader usually orders the cell to  self-destruct and releases new gyruses to look   for new prey but what makes gyruses special  is not their modus operandi or their size even   it's that they are much more complex than thought  possible for a virus your cells have around 20   000 genes a typical bacterium has a few thousand  genes the coronavirus has around 15 hiv or the flu   around 10. the number of genes alone is certainly  not everything the tomato for example has 35   000 genes but generally we think of life as a  complex system so below a certain complexity level   something may be closer to dead material  rather than a living organism but gyruses   can have hundreds or even thousands of genes  blurring the line between living and dead things   and it's not just the numbers that are special  but also what these genes do we used to think of   viral genes as the simplest of instructions just  enough to overcome the defense of their victims   and make new viruses but many gyrus genes  are completely unique basically mystery genes   even more confusing a huge selection of their  genes that are actually hallmarks of living   things genes that regulate nutrient intake energy  production light harvesting replication or are   just necessary to keep cells alive some recent  studies have even suggested that some gyruses   with very complex genomes may be able to maintain  a basic level of metabolism on their own which if   true will shake up what we thought of viruses  even more we still don't know anything for sure   but one idea about gyrus genes is that they might  fundamentally alter the physiology and evolution   of their victims by integrating their own genomes  and merging with them into chimeric organisms   or the other way around take some host genes with  them and be changed themselves for billions of   years gyruses may have been existing alongside  and infecting cells exerting an unseen influence   on the development of life not just as a parasite  but jerking evolution in different directions by   mixing genes around in all directions which brings  us to another unique thing about them virophages   the viruses hunting gyruses the concept itself is  a bit mind-boggling how can a thing that might be   dead hunt another thing that might be dead too  let's look at one of them the viruphage sputnik   is hunting a gyrus called mama virus that  itself is hunting amoebi sputnik is a tiny   minimalistic virus that doesn't even have  the genes and tools to replicate itself   what it does have is the ability to hijack the  viroplasm factories of mama viruses so virophages   need their victim the gyrus to infect their victim  an amoeba first and then they can parasitize it   a memovirus viroplasm infected by sputnik can only  produce very few new gyruses and among these many   are deformed and broken unable to infect further  cells instead it makes loads of new sputnik   viruphages other virophages are even more subtle  when they infect a viroplasm they just integrate   their genetic code into the newly produced gyruses  like sleeper agents the next time one of these   infiltrated gyruses successfully infects a cell  it produces mostly viruphages instead of gyruses   gyruses are not completely defenseless  though a few years ago the world was in   awe when scientists discovered crispr a bacterial  defense system against viruses it turns out some   gyruses have a system that might be similar a  sort of gyrus immune system against virophages   in turn virophages can also be used as an  antigyrus defense mechanism by living cells   some protests have been found that integrated the  genetic code of virophages into their genome and   kept it when the protists were infected by gyruses  they used the code to create virophages themselves   to take over the gyrus factories in the end  the protists would still be killed by the gyrus   infection but instead of releasing gyruses to kill  its buddies it released virophages to hunt them   the amazing thing about everything we've told you  in this video is that we're still very much at the   beginning it's not even been 20 years since the  discovery of gyruses and virophages there is so   much going on in the microverse life is not an  isolated event but a ping pong game of trillions   of organisms and viruses so when you feel down and  like there's not that much new to discover think   of gyruses and all the other elephant-sized ducks  all around us invisible until we look more closely   but how do you learn to look  at the world like a scientist   the best way is by trying things out for yourself  our friends from brilliant are the perfect coaches   to turn your curiosity into practical skills  brilliant is a problem-solving website and app   that makes science accessible with a hands-on  approach more than 60 interactive courses give   you the tools to crack problems in maths computer  science and engineering in a way that feels more   like playing a game than doing homework lessons  will surprise you with storytelling code writing   tasks and interactive challenges basically using  whatever keeps you interested and entertained   the focus is on you having fun learning something  will happen almost without you noticing it   and tiny step by tiny step you'll build up  your long-term understanding of science and   get closer to your stem goals to start looking at  the world of science for a different perspective   go to brilliant.org nutshell and sign up for free  and there's an extra perk for kurzgesagt viewers   the first 200 people to use the link get  20 percent off their annual membership   which unlocks all of brilliant courses in maths  science and computer science at quartz gazant   we love to get to the bottom of things  brilliant can help you go on that deep dive you

Channel: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

Views: 17,251,447

Keywords:

Id: 1-NxodiGPCU

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 31 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/DaemonTheRoguePrince]

"Imagine a mouse entering into your mouth and using your guts, bones, and fat tissue to create a mouse factory." No I would rather not imagine this, thank you

[u/Mikazukinoyaiba]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I live for the Tuesday drops of Kurzgesagt videos.

Also I think this may actually be my favorite video so far... I thoroughly enjoy any of the biomedical videos you guys have, especially if they relate to health/medicine.

But this actually introduced me to something I wasn't aware of, virophages and that bacteria have been incorporating virophages to defend against giant viruses. Giant viruses were just a footnote in my Advanced Virology coursework 5 years ago.

[u/Darkwolf1115]

I'm a simple man, I see a kurzgesagt video, them I have to watch it

[u/AstroCookieGalaxy]

This entire video was just one big M Night Shyamalan twist after another but for viruses, and I love that so much

[u/Postboy1234]

"Imagine a mouse entering into your mouth and using your guts, bones, and fat tissue to create a mouse factory."

​

no thank you... but i don't want to have nightmares.

[u/fed3-d]

Funny Theory Just for fun...

How about Viruses originated as a Weapon? Virus doesn't compete for food and resources. So, as an ancient monocellular being, I develop simple dna instructions that can Hijack other competitor or predator reproductive system... My competitor Is dead (so more resources for me), and dying It releases more enemies that doesn't compete against me for resources but continue killing all other competitors (probability of killing grows exponentially)... That sounds very successfull for me... Until I realize that random mutations can affect Viruses too.

And very early cellular beings were not differentiate and specialized as today, so a mutated virus After not so many generations could start hunting his originale creator. So a Weapon out of control, like AI in Matrix or Terminator. As of today, we don't see any Cell creating virus on purpose because it's not anymore a succesfull strategy. There are so many Viruses out there that annoying your competitors with onetherone of this Hunters Is meaningless, so my chance of surviving aren't anyway greater... But i would waste resources (many resources) that i could spend for defens or something more efficient or important for my survival.

[u/ZoroeArc]

I’m sorry, but was that a Bowser’s Inside Story reference?

[u/hoeskioeh]

me: "Elefant sized ducks hiding in plain sight are a myth..."
reality: "..."

[u/Hardvig]

Where do kurzgesagt actually prefer we watch these videos?

I want to support by adding views in a place where they make money from my views..!