New virus identified and named after York
A new study by researchers from the York Structural Biology Laboratory and the Department of Biology has identified and characterised a new type of virus which infects freshwater bacteria.
The virus has been called ‘Jorvik’ from the Viking name for York, the city where it was first discovered. The study was recently published in the journal iScience.
Jorvik does not infect humans but it infects bacteria found in aquatic ecosystems. These are indispensable for humankind; from food production to the global carbon cycle, water plays a role in vital planetary systems which sustain human life.
Identifying the virus is the first step in understanding how it affects our environment. As it infects members of the Rhodobacteraceae family, which have been found in a wide range of aquatic environments including oceans, it has the potential to be very widespread.
The presence or absence of the virus in aquatic ecosystems could also help us monitor the state of these ecosystems and react accordingly. Dr Pavol Bardy, lead author of the paper, explained: “Something similar is now being done with the human gut virome when an increased occurrence of certain virus families is linked to bowel issues. However, much more environmental research is required to be conducted on Jorvik in this regard to determine how it functions.”
Dr Bardy was able to identify Jorvik in something of a lucky circumstance. While working on the bacteria called Rhodobacter capsulatus, he noticed it was producing a virus. He was then able to get a microscopy sample of the virus itself.
Dr Bardy explained: “For me, the most interesting part of this study was the discovery that Jorvik is very unstable when employing established laboratory protocols that have been in use from the beginning of bacterial virology.
That explains why this group of viruses remained hidden from us for many decades. Our luck was the fact that Jorvik resided as a dormant, persistent infection in one of our strains, similar to the human herpes virus that will reappear, for example, during stress. This is why we could periodically retrieve it from this strain and work with it.”
The study reveals Jorvik represents the first member of an entire family of viruses. By comparison, the equivalent taxonomic family for humans also includes orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees. Therefore Jorvik's discovery is key to finding, and understanding, more viruses like it.