Soil is a thriving ecosystem of life and death, insects and plants use it to sustain them until they die, at which point bacteria and fungi take them and degrade them in the soil. Within this complex system, viruses use special genes that are crucial for their metabolic processes but do not interfere with replication, called auxiliary metabolic genes (AMG).
Scientists believed these genes could be involved in crucial processes sol, but understanding them is extremely difficult. This up to a recent study.
One Opera Published in the journal Nature Communications, a team of researchers from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) was able to reveal the structure of a protein expressed by an AMG in soil viruses, providing an unprecedented glimpse into its function.
Using X-rays from the light source, the researchers essentially created an X-ray scan – well, more than 5,000 individual scans of the protein, which were then stitched together – as it crystallized, producing a precise structure.
What role do soil viruses play?
This allowed the researchers to finally delve into what constitutes this elusive family of genes, including how they can relate to other bacterial and viral genes and any new regions not yet known: in this specific protein, they have discovered entirely new ones.
“We have seen the location of each atom in the viral protein, which helps us understand how it works,” SSLL lead researcher and co-author Clyde Smith said in a statement.
“We were surprised to see that the protein resembled the known atomic structures of related bacterial and fungal enzyme families, but also contained completely new parts.”
According to the study, the protein in question is likely a chitosanase, responsible for breaking down the structural chitin that makes up insect exoskeletons and cell walls. fungus. Large numbers of insects die and enter the ground every day, and the destruction of hard exoskeletons requires specialized tools. This protein can prepare the ground for plants, making it ready for a new life.
However, as the function of the new regions in the protein is still unknown, more research will be needed to fully understand why AMGs exist and their role in ecosystem the soil.
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