Bite the Bullet

They look like man-made bullets and these naturally-occurring viruses can be just as deadly. Vesicular stomatitis (pictured) belongs to a family of viruses called rhabdoviruses which self-assemble, forming round-tipped ‘shells’ around a payload of viral material. Colliding with a vulnerable target cell, these shells burst open, rearranging to protect and stabilise the viral material as it leaks out. Often 150,000 times smaller than a 9mm bullet, rhabdoviruses can quickly replicate and shoot from cell to cell to spread their infection. They do the most immediate damage, however, when lodged deep within a tissue. A bite from an infected dog might take viral ‘bullets’ loaded with Rabies, another rhabdovirus, deep into a muscle, far away from our immune defences and, unless treated quickly, nearly always fatal.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Irina Gutsche
• Unit of Virus Host Cell Interactions, Grenoble, France
• Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Communications Copyright 2013
• Published in Nature Communications 4: 1429