nematodes go viral线虫广为传播.pdfVIP

Synopsis Nematodes Go Viral Robin Meadows* Freelance Science Writer, Fairfield, California, United States of America Tiny worms with simple genetics, nem- apple in Orsay and a Caenorhabditis briggsae atodes have almost everything it takes to strain from a snail on a rotting grape in be a favored model system to study viral Santeuil. Multiple lines of evidence sug- infections. Recent work has shown that the gested that their intestinal symptoms were nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, long known viral. For example, afflicted nematodes to enlist innate immune pathways against were cured by bleaching and then re- bacteria, can also muster such resistance to infected when mixed with filtrates of viruses. And because these immune re- symptomatic worms. Moreover, electron sponses function much the same way in microscopy revealed virus-sized particles vertebrates, the worm could help answer in intestinal cells of symptomatic nema- FISH staining demonstrating infection of questions about the role of these pathways todes but not in those that had been intestinal epithelial cell of C. elegans by in other species, including humans. So bleach-cured, bolstering the hypothesis Orsay virus. what’s missing? that the affliction was viral. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001011.g001 Because no viruses were known to infect Molecular analysis then indicated that nematodes naturally, biologists had to rely each of the two nematode strains con- however, the strain no longer produced on artificial means of introducing viruses