(Daily Star) – A new type of virus that defies evolution has shocked scientists who have no idea how it is infecting its hosts. Researchers in Japan were combing through pig manure — which is brimming with viruses — when they made the disturbing discovery. A virus is among the simplest of living things and consists of its genetic material — DNA or RNA — and a shell made of protein. The protein shell has aerial-like spikes in it which the virus uses to hack into and hijack a host cell so it replicates itself — resulting in illness if
the virus is disease-causing like Ebola, Norovirus, or flu. But this new virus, from the diarrhea-causing enterovirus G family, has no shell at all which has completely baffled scientists. How does it survive without the weaponry to break into its hosts? Professor Tetsuya Mizutani, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), said: ”The recombinant virus we found in this study has no structural proteins.”This means the recombinant virus cannot make a viral particle.” READ MORE
