The Molluscum Contagiosum Virus Just Stole Our DNA to Use Against Us
Scientists found a virus that’s basically a biological identity thief. It snatched a human gene 100,000 years ago and is likely using our own hardware to boost its infection game. Evolution is officially playing dirty, and we’re just the unpaid beta testers.
In a bizarre twist of evolutionary history, Molluscum Contagiosum—a distant cousin of smallpox—has been caught red-handed with a stolen human gene. The virus hijacked a gene known as BC200 around 100,000 years ago, making it the first known instance of a virus permanently incorporating a human gene to potentially boost its own survival.
BC200 normally hangs out in the human brain, where it helps regulate how cells churn out proteins. Researchers like Dr. Feschotte found that the virus version of this gene has picked up unique mutations over the millennia, proving it didn't just stumble upon it yesterday. The virus effectively keeps this gene in its toolkit, and it hasn't let it go in over 100,000 years.
The current theory, proposed by Dr. Elde , suggests the virus uses this hijacked machinery to override the cell’s attempt to shut down protein production during an infection. Normally, infected cells try to cut off the factory line to starve the virus, but this parasite uses our own BC200 instructions to force the machinery to keep humming along for its benefit.
It turns out humanity has been accidentally crowdsourcing its own viral upgrades for eons. Whether it’s a stroke of evolutionary genius or just a cosmic glitch, being outsmarted by a skin-rash virus proves that biology is the ultimate unpatched software.
Source: Science
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