A giant virus just rewrote a chapter of evolution: complex proteins may have viral roots

Some of the proteins that let your nerve cells fire — tandem potassium channels, tiny gates that steady electrical signals — have no ancestors in bacteria, and nobody knew where they came from. A team at TU Darmstadt and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University has now found a working version of the gene inside a giant virus that infects marine algae, and the evidence says the virus did not steal it from its host: the gene appears to be the virus's own invention. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the finding strengthens a quietly radical idea — that giant viruses helped build the complex protein machinery of higher life.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation