Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level : Yaravirus
Mains level : NA
In a lake in Brazil, researchers have discovered a virus that they find unusual and intriguing.
Yaravirus
- The Yaravirus infects amoeba and has genes that have not been described before, something that could challenge how DNA viruses are classified.
- It has a puzzling origin and phylogeny (evolutionary relationship).
- Because of the Yaravirus’s small size, it was unlike other viruses that infect amoeba and they named it as a tribute to Yara, the “mother of waters” in the mythological stories of the Tupi-Guarani indigenous tribes.
- The virus does not infect human cells, according to the researchers.