The borna virus is at once obscure and grotesque. It can infect mammals and birds, but scientists know little about its effects on its victims. The virus now turns out to have an intimate bond with every person on Earth. It infected our monkey-like ancestors 40 million years ago, and its genes have been passed down ever since.
Borna viruses are not the only viruses lurking in our genome. Scientists have found about 100,000 elements of human DNA that probably came from viruses. But the borna virus belongs to a kind of virus that has never been found in the human genome before. Its discovery raises the possibility that many more viruses are left to be found.
No comments:
Post a Comment