The most powerful superpower. Time-stop? Luck? Fire bending? What could it be? The only limit to it is your imagination but then again, imagination is your limit. But what if there was a superpower in real life? An ability, one that embodies the entire definition of the word “potential”.This would be the ability to be able to adapt to nearly any phenomena on the earth, Literally whatever that doesn't kill it, makes it stronger. Near limitless with the exception that their immunity is not instant but only inevitable.
Surely if you know how to read a bio article, you would know what a virus is. Over the history of humanity, there has stood one non-living organism that has been linked to nearly billions of human deaths (Nathanson). Their ability to adapt to their surroundings all come from their extremely fast rate of reproduction. Now let's get into the nerdy sciency stuff. Viruses mainly reproduce in many different ways, and as an example I shall be using the more common method, the lytic cycle. Quite simple as it can be, the main stuff to note here is how the virus recognizes a suitable host cell, attaches to a specific receptor on the membrane and then injects its own RNA or DNA into it. From there, this genetic material integrates itself into the cell’s main machinery and forces them into making components of itself, making new nucleic acids and proteins in order to assemble these viral components into new virions. They keep doing this until the virus fills the cell like a balloon and bursts in the process of lysis, releasing more viruses to spread (Mahak). The process of gaining immunity is mostly gained through mutations and mutations have a rare chance of occurring during the process of reproduction, even rarer for them to be advantageous (Malak). So basically, when a new generation is made, they take a gamble with natural selection and most of the time, they hit the jackpot.
There are 2 types of advantageous mutations that can occur, these being antigenic shift and drift. Drift is more common and a bit less harsh than the latter, with it only being small mutations that change the surface proteins from the virus’s protein coat, basically meaning the body’s immune response won't be able to recognise it, even with vaccines. Now shift on the other hand occurs when 2 different strains of the same virus, attack and infect the same host cell. The lytic cycle might occur here but now during genetic integration, it would be like mixing red and blue playdough to make a thicker, darker purple playdough as a new strain is born, well equipped with a completely different antigenic profile ( Jäger). Shifts are actually the type of mutation responsible for most of the pandemic strains in the world.
To conclude, there really is no limit to what viruses can evolve into and it is horrifying. So the next time your doctor tells you to finish your antibiotic cycle. Just do it. Don't let them adapt.
Bibliography
Nathanson, Neal. “The Human Toll of Viral Diseases.” Elsevier EBooks, Elsevier BV, Jan. 2016, pp. 3–16, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-800964-2.00001-x. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
Mahak Jalan. “ScienceABC.” ScienceABC, 25 Sept. 2018, www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/what-is-the-lytic-and-lysogenic-cycle.html. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.
Mathias Jäger. “Replication Cycle of SARS-CoV-2 in 3D | EMBL.” EMBL, 23 Nov. 2020, www.embl.org/news/science/covid-replication/. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.
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