OBELISKS
– SCI & TECH
News:
A New Obelisk ‘Lifeform’
Is Hiding Inside Humans
What's
in the news?
●
Stanford University researchers have
discovered virus-like ‘lifeforms’ that exist inside human mouths and guts.
●
Smaller than a virus and not considered
standard life, the genetic material can still transfer information that can be
read by a cell.
Obelisks:
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It is a newly discovered class of virus-like entities present in the human
body.
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It comprises a class of diverse RNAs that have colonized and gone
unnoticed in human and global microbiomes.
●
Named after the highly symmetrical,
rod-like structures formed by their twisted lengths of RNA, the Obelisks'
genetic sequences are only around 1,000 characters (nucleotides) in size.
Features:
●
These mysterious bits of genetic material
have no detectable sequences or even
structural similarities known to any other biological agents.
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They're also significantly larger than other genetic molecules that
coexist inside cells, from plants to bacteria, called plasmids, which are
more commonly composed of DNA.
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Obelisks represent their own class of
organism. They lie somewhere between
viruses and viroids.
●
Although the hosts of other obelisks
remain unknown, there is a possibility that some of them may be found in
bacteria.
●
Different types of Obelisks appear to be
present in different areas of our bodies.
Go
back to basics:
Viroids:
●
Viroids are tiny loops of RNA, a genetic
cousin of DNA and they've been found to infect primarily plants.
Difference
Between Viroids and RNA Viruses:
Viroids differ from
larger, RNA-based viruses in several ways.
●
Viriods are naked, lacking the protective shells that viruses use to hold their
genetic material.
●
The
RNA of Viriods doesn't contain instructions to build proteins;
whereas viruses carry instructions for their outer shells and for certain
enzymes they need to replicate, viroids co-opt these enzymes from their hosts.