February 11, 2020

Anna Murray 

The leading researcher Paulo V. M. Boratto and other 14 scientists from Brazil, France, and the US had carried out a joint research on biology and published their finding on January 28 in an article, named “A mysterious 80 nm amoeba virus with a near-complete “ORFan genome,”  which challenges the classification of DNA viruses”, on bioRxiv.

Boratto and others reported their discovery of a new amoebal virus, named after indigenous Tupi water goddess Yara, Yaravirus has a mysterious origin and phylogeny. According to the article, Yaravirus presents 80 nm-sized particles and a 44,924 bp dsDNA genome encoding for 74 predicted proteins in which 68 (90%) had never been identified before.

Yaravirus was extracted from the artificial lake, Pampulha, at the city of Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil. The researchers concluded the number of unknown proteins composing the Yaravirus particles reflects the variability existing in the viral world. The new viral genomes are yet expecting to be discovered.

Photo:Webshot.