Viruses do more than just cause disease – they also influence ecosystems and the processes that shape the planet. Tracing their evolution could help researchers better understand how viruses work.
The microbes in the mother’s gut can alter the number of neurons in the baby’s brain and the connections they make.
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Helen Vuong, University of California, Los Angeles
Microbes in the gut aren’t just important for digesting your food. In pregnant women, these gut microbes are producing chemicals that are essential for proper brain development of the fetus.
These are viruses called bacteriophages that infect only bacterial cells.
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Bacteria are becoming resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics. These expensive, hard-to-treat infections are prompting physicians to reassess using viruses to destroy bacteria.
Every surface of our body – inside and out – is covered in microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, fungi and many other microscopic life forms.
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Just because you don’t have the flu doesn’t mean that your aren’t teeming with viruses inside and out. But what are all these viruses doing, if they aren’t making you sick?
The immune system has to establish which cells belong to us and which are foreign, no mean feat.
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