#virology

#virology

Super-Resolution Microscopy Lets Scientists Pinpoint the Location of Coronavirus Particles in the CellScientists are pretty knowledgeable on the viral life cycle and the active molecules in each step of the said cycle. However, they always found it difficult to pinpoint the location of viral molecules inside the infected human cell. That is, until now.Thanks to the efforts of these scientists from Stanford, it is now possible to determine where viral molecules lie. The method — super-resolution fluorescence microscopy — gives scientists a nanoscale view of the cell. Through this method, they can sift through the crowd and find certain pieces of the virus. The scientists used this method on the HCoV-229E, a coronavirus with a structure similar to the SARS-CoV-2. With this, scientists will be able to better understand how the coronavirus infects cells, and hopefully identify vulnerabilities, which could lead to better treatments.(Image Credit: Jiarui Wang, Moerner Laboratory)#Biotechnology #Coronavirus #Virology #Viruses

Scientists Extracted 15,000-year-old Viruses, Most Previously Unknown to Man, From Tibetan Glacier IceScientists have extracted two ice core samples from a glacier at the Tibetan Plateau in China that contain viruses nearly 15,000 years old.Zhi-Ping Zhong, lead author of the virus study and researcher at The Ohio State University, said that as the glaciers formed gradually, they trapped dust, gases, as well as viruses in the ice. Studying the different layers of the ice cores help scientists learn about climate change, microbes, and viruses over the centuries.Previous studies conducted in Western China were limited in its ice core analysis. Now that they have new ice core samples, scientists discovered genetic codes for 33 viruses. Four of the viruses were previously known to science, but at least 28 of them were novel.Interestingly, about half of the viruses survived because they had gene sequences that made them thrive in extreme environments. "These viruses have signatures of genes that help them infect cells in cold environments - just surreal genetic signatures for how a virus is able to survive in extreme conditions," said professor Matthew Sullivan of Ohio State. "These are not easy signatures to pull out, and the method that Zhi-Ping developed to decontaminate the cores and to study microbes and viruses in ice could help us search for these genetic sequences in other extreme icy environments – Mars, for example, the moon, or closer to home in Earth’s Atacama Desert," he added.Image credit:Lonnie Thompson#virus #TibitanPlateua #WesternChina #ice #icecore #virology