Viruses, those strange, quasi-alive chunks of genetic material, are usually bad news for the cells that they invade. A virus uses its host’s genetic machinery to replicate itself, often sickening or destroying the host in the process. But scientists might have found helpful viruses deep in the ocean, in one of the world’s oddest ecosystems.
Eric Wommack from the University of Delaware was studying the hot waters around hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean when he found that viruses there, rather than replicating and destroying their hosts, often just hang around and cause no harm. When its bacterial host finds itself under stress, the virus comes alive. But while going about its business of replicating itself, the virus can interact and exchange DNA with the bacterium.
Wommack says he doesn’t yet know just what genes pass between the microscopic pair, but it’s possible that the partnership is one of the bacteria’s secrets to surviving in such an inhospitable ecosystem. The scalding heat of an undersea vent can damage proteins, so perhaps viruses pass on genes that help bacteria cope. Wommack plans to study waters from another Pacific vent, this one near Mexico, hoping to find the answer.
Two things are clear from this study. First, as the recent discovery of the first viruses that infect other viruses reminded us, there’s a lot left to learn about them. And second, there’s a whole lot of genes passing around under the sea.
Image: NOAA
