Traces were found to support the theory that the bird flu virus that spread around the world originated in fish and other aquatic organisms. As the scientific community has not yet agreed on the origin of the flu virus, it is expected that there will be progress in related discussions.
The international academic journal Nature reported on the 28th of last month (local time), “Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia found traces of an ancient flu-like virus in corals and sturgeon.”
Scientists continue to debate several hypotheses about the origin of the flu virus, which is the cause of bird flu and seasonal flu. There is still no consensus about the exact origin of the flu.
In the midst of this, Mary Petron, a researcher at the University of Sydney, Australia, announced on a site before the publication of the bioRxiv thesis on the 16th of last month, “I found evidence that the influenza virus originated in a creature that lives in water . .”
Among them, traces of viruses including the flu originating from creatures in the water have been discovered before. In 2021, Professor Cui Jie Jie of the Pasteur Institute in Shanghai, China, discovered an advanced strain of the flu virus in the gene of a crayfish that lives in the deep sea.
First, the research team analyzed ribonucleic acid (RNA), the genetic material of corals collected from the Australian coast. Viruses from the ‘Articulavirales’ group, which includes influenza viruses, have been observed in corals. “The viruses found in corals are part of an ancient family of viruses that appeared 600 million years ago, and appear to have originated from a group that includes influenza viruses,” the researchers said.
The researchers also found flu-related RNA sequences in the genes of the Siberian sturgeon. In 2018, the research team also found a distant relative to the flu in the genes of hagfish, a fish. “The discovery of an early type of influenza virus in hagfish or sturgeon is evidence that influenza could have infected aquatic organisms, including fish, before migrating to land,” said Professor Petron.
“The virus strain we found appeared to be adept at jumping between hosts,” said Professor Petron.
Professor Petron also emphasized the need for further research, saying, “Analysis of more animals to reveal the route of infection between ancient hosts will help identify viruses that cause new human epidemics.”
Chantal Bogles, a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health, said: “Studies of aquatic viruses can help us better understand the emergence and evolution of viruses with the potential for zoonotic disease.” Robert Gifford, a researcher at the University of Glasgow in the UK, said, “As the phylogeny of the virus is added, the route of host infection may change,” and “we need to continue to look at the results of future research. “
reference material
bioRxiv, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.15.528772
