Diversity of viroids and viroid-like agents
Date:
January 31, 2023
Source:
NIH/National Library of Medicine
Summary:
A team of researchers has developed a computational pipeline to
identify and better understand viroids and viroid-like covalently
closed circular RNAs (cccRNAs, also referred to as, simply,
circular RNAs).
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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of researchers from the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
and collaborating academic research institutions have developed a
computational pipeline to identify and better understand viroids and viroid-like covalently closed circular RNAs (cccRNAs, also referred to
as, simply, circular RNAs).
This is a type of single-stranded RNA which, unlike linear RNA, forms
a covalently closed, continuous circle. Findings were published in the
journal Cell.
========================================================================== Viroids are circular RNAs of only 250 to 400 nucleotides and are the
smallest and simplest among the known infectious agents and have been
believed to cause infections only in plants. The diversity of viroid
and viroid-like RNAs has been poorly understood, which led researchers
to investigate more about these sub-viral agents and their possible
abundance in other environments and hosts.
By searching a collection of 5,131 metatranscriptomes and 1,344 plant transcriptomes for viroid-like cccRNAs, researchers uncovered 11,378
viroid- like cccRNAs spanning 4,409 species-level clusters. This
finding was a five- fold increase compared to the previously identified viroid-like elements.
Within this diverse collection, researchers discovered that this
distinct class of pathogens is not limited in their spread to a
few plants as previously thought but are common and abundant in all
kinds of environments and hosts, comparable to the better-known RNA
viruses. Furthermore, distant relatives of human Hepatitis Delta Virus (Hepatitis D) were discovered, shedding light on the origin of this
important human pathogen, as well as completely novel types of viruses.
"This work opens up new directions for researchers worldwide," said
Eugene V.
Koonin, PhD, a co-author of the study and senior investigator in the Computational Biology Branch of NLM's Intramural Research Program. "We
are currently pursuing some follow up analyses," he added.
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Plants_&_Animals
# New_Species # Virology # Endangered_Plants #
Microbes_and_More # Biology # Biochemistry_Research #
Nature # Pests_and_Parasites
* RELATED_TERMS
o Truffle o Computational_genomics o Computational_neuroscience
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========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
NIH/National_Library_of_Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Benjamin D. Lee, Uri Neri, Simon Roux, Yuri I. Wolf, Antonio Pedro
Camargo, Mart Krupovic, Peter Simmonds, Nikos Kyrpides, Uri Gophna,
Valerian V. Dolja, Eugene V. Koonin. Mining metatranscriptomes
reveals a vast world of viroid-like circular RNAs. Cell, 2023;
DOI: 10.1016/ j.cell.2022.12.039 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230131160549.htm
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