This information was reported by T4, reports URA-Inform.
Our bodies are home to their own universe of tiny organisms, but scientists at Stanford have discovered an entirely new class hiding in plain sight: obelisks.
These tiny pieces of RNA have been identified in the mouth cavities and intestines of humans. Obelisks are rod- or rod-shaped structures that have not been discovered before.
Scientists noted that this class of RNA, called «Obelisks», has several common properties, including circular genome assemblies measuring about 1 thousands of nucleotides, rod-shaped secondary structures and open reading frames encoding a new superfamily of proteins called “Oblins”.
However, obelisks form a separate phylogenetic group that bears no similarity to known biological agents. The study also found that obelisks dominate human microbiome metatranscriptomes found in stool and oral cavity.
This discovery opens new horizons in the study of the human microbiota and its interactions with the host. Obelisks are a diverse class of RNA that has colonized the human microbiota and likely plays an important role in its functioning.
Recall that it was previously reported that led the Earth to a giant snow phase 700 million years ago: scientists unraveled the “culprits” .