Virus infects a larger virus
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Even viruses can suffer a viral infection, French scientists reported Thursday in the journal Nature in a discovery that may help explain how viruses swap genes and evolve so rapidly.
A new strain of giant virus was isolated from a cooling tower in Paris and found to be infected by a smaller type of virus, named Sputnik, after the first man-made satellite.
Sputnik is the first example of a virus infecting another virus to make it sick.
The finding may shed light on how viruses mutate so quickly, a feature that can make them difficult to tackle with drugs and vaccines.
