Happy Microbe Monday

I am very sick; on my mind it does weigh

I am sick with some manner of rhinovirus

And so today is but a short sheaf of digital papyrus

But I will speak to you of the virus, which, considered as a single particle, is called a virion

I am too sick to rhyme this any more I am sorry. Viruses are funny little guys that infect you and also other stuff too. Okay woops that rhymed. Perhaps my warning was ill-timed. Help me.

FUNNY VIRUS FACTS:

viruses are a major contributor to the cycling of ocean microbes. something like 20% of marine bacteria get killed by viruses daily. the ocean is so so so infected and sickly all the time teehee

i dont normally talk about diseases because they bore me but i am so diseased rn. did you know theres like 200 viruses that all just cause colds. many of them arent evenin the same genus. your body has one response and it is making soooooo much mucus you gotta get sooooo slimey its the only way!!!

on genuses. did you know viruses have their own system of taxonomy? its true! the highest taxonomic rank is a "realm" which is very cool. they have their own kingdoms too even!

There are six realms and each is united by highly conserved traits, i.e. genome sequences that are shared between them even through evolutionary weirdness and the like.

the realms are:

Adnaviria, who target archaea! they got a crazy alpha helical capsid protein. its got so many shapes

Duplodnaviria, double stranded dna viruses which use a HK97-fold. this is just like the kotor robot guy???

Varidnaviri, also double stranded dna viruses which use a JELLY ROLL PROTEIN FOLD TECHNIQUE. beware their forbidden techniques... (thank you jane s richardson for the funny name)

Monodnaviria, single stranded dna viruses that encode for HUH endonucleases, the most confused endonucleases

Riboviria, which contains the little bastard that got me. RNA viruses.

Ribozyviria, these incredibly weird little satellite nucleic acids which are soooo submissive and need a helper virus to do anything. coinfection babeyyy

my head hurty too much to keep going.

Be well! Be well! Be well! Happy microbes make for happy mondays but my microbes are so round and gravid with viral particulate rn.

Comments

cute_spider wrote on January 6, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Feel well soon!

This makes me wonder if / when we'll get a virus that really really likes bucketloads of mucus. Or is mucus just so gross and useless that it can't be taken advantage of?

WRETCHEDSORCERESS OP wrote on January 6, 2025 at 6:53 PM

thank you!

I know a few bacterial pathogens can get through mucus at the very least, and those all have some fun ways of doing so. i know one that chemically alters the mucus around it to be less goopey. heliobacter pylori I believe but this is off the cuff

mucus is stuffed full of commensal bacteria though, and thwy provide quite a barrier to most pathogens. on top of mucus being turbo viscous. its sort of like a peace offering of "here you go microbes, go live here and not on my tissues pleas". many microbes can actually eat mucin so theres a minor arms race between the commensal guys and pathogenic bacteria in that regard

so your mucus is this living microbiome! i say commensal but some evidence points to borderline mutualistic symbioses, too! theres some bacteria in there which seem to have really positive health effects. i love mucus i love microbiota i love bacteria

flabberghaster wrote on January 7, 2025 at 6:10 AM

I hope your body's various mechanisms for attacking pathogens work soon and you feel better.