Why can't these viruses be friends? In a new study from her PhD @cvrinfo.bsky.social, #AnnaSims shows that #SARS-CoV-2 infections segregate into distinct microdomains as they spread. But why? (1/N) journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... - ThreadSky

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socialinfluenza.bsky.social • 7 days ago

Why can't these viruses be friends?
In a new study from her PhD @cvrinfo.bsky.social, #AnnaSims shows that #SARS-CoV-2 infections segregate into distinct microdomains as they spread. But why? (1/N)
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.02077-24

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jknorrland.bsky.social•7 days ago

📌

socialinfluenza.bsky.social•7 days ago

The effect is due to superinfection exclusion (SIE), in which a virus prevents related viruses infecting the same cell that it has taken control of. When infections spread across many cells, the asyncronous onset of SIE divides them into isolated regions, each seeded by a different virus... (2/N)

castltrastondrs.bsky.social•7 days ago

It’s very interesting dynamic…

socialinfluenza.bsky.social•7 days ago

As well as being very pretty, this is important - it drastically limits the potential for genetic exchange between viruses within the host, which is a major driver of viral evolution - e.g. in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants... (3/N)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05189-9

socialinfluenza.bsky.social•7 days ago

And while different viruses cause SIE in different ways, as long as SIE comes on gradually it will pattern a spreading infection like this. Anna previously showed that influenza (almost certainly a different mechanism of SIE) does exactly the same thing... (4/N)
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001941

socialinfluenza.bsky.social•7 days ago

So, what have we learnt?
We've learnt that as viruses spread within you they are fighting with each other for control of territory inside you.
We've also learnt that Anna is an excellent scientist - though those of us who worked with her, of course, already knew that (/end)

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