"What is it?" Brother Yi almost thought he was hallucinating. Could it be that he has been under too much pressure recently?
"New puffed virus." The secretary spoke clearly.
Brother Yi and Qiu Tianning looked at each other for a few seconds before they came to their senses.
"Let's go!" Brother Yi got up and walked quickly, "Contact the laboratory immediately!"
The secretary quickly replied: "Director Xu and Professor Qin are both online."
Several people rushed to the conference room, and the first brother couldn't wait to ask: "Mr. Qin, what is going on?"
Professor Qin looked confused: "We isolated a new type of virus from knife ants and did some experiments out of caution. The eggs showed very obvious signs of puffing. Several eggs hatched not long ago, and the new larvae are very powerful."
Offensive, I have arranged for manpower to observe the condition of the experimental subjects 24 hours a day."
"The larvae are very aggressive?" Qiu Tianning repeated doubtfully.
"Yes." Professor Qin nodded, "The experiment used locust eggs. Compared with ordinary nymphs, the newly hatched nymphs have larger and more developed jaws and thicker and stronger forelimbs. The variation is very obvious."
"Also, this larva not only killed two of its companions that hatched together, but also ate three unhatched eggs."
Several people were stunned together, and it took a while to digest Professor Qin's words.
Vegetarian locusts actually switch to eating meat?
Brother Yi rubbed his face vigorously to make himself more awake: "Mr. Qin, do you mean that the mutation of knife ants is related to this newly discovered puffed virus?"
"I think the possibility is very high." Professor Qin said.
"Is the aggression of knife ants also related to viruses?"
"It's possible."
Brother No. 1 scratched his hair hard: "The virus can also affect the aggressiveness of bugs? This, this is incredible, isn't it?"
He wanted to say that this was ridiculous, but with Professor Qin's status in the domestic biological community, unless he was an old fool, he would never make such a fatal joke.
Brother Yi stared at Professor Qin's eyes with wide eyes. Although those old eyes were a little cloudy, there was no flicker or confusion at all.
Professor Qin's old face wrinkled up: "I also find it unbelievable. It happened before my eyes. I can't help but not believe it."
Brother 1 quickly calmed down: "How do viruses affect bugs?"
"There are no clues yet."
"What is the difference between second-generation viruses and first-generation viruses?"
"Research on viruses has just begun. We know very little about viruses. Currently we only know that the genetic base of second-generation viruses is 4.7 times that of first-generation viruses."
Brother 1 was slightly startled: "Is the second-generation virus a brand-new virus?"
"It's not clear yet, and my gut tells me that there must be some connection between the two viruses that we don't know about."
"Intuition?" Qiu Tianning was surprised.
"Yes, intuition." Professor Qin said, "From a genetic level, these two viruses are completely unrelated. But except for the number of genes, the shape and structure of the two viruses are almost identical, including the process of invading cells and the insertion of gene fragments.
The methods are exactly the same, so I have reason to believe that the relationship between the two viruses is not that simple."
Brother No. 1 said with a headache: "Then does this virus have anything to do with rapid evolution?"
"I think there is," Professor Qin said, "but there is no evidence to support it yet."
Qiu Tianning said pointedly: "If you hadn't said this, I would have taken it as a joke."
Professor Qin pursed his lips: "I would rather it was just a joke."
The first brother said: "Mr. Qin, if I understand correctly, the bugs infected with the first-generation virus only change their body shape, but the bugs infected with the second-generation virus are not only more aggressive, but while their body size expands, their limbs will also change."
More suitable for offense!"
"Yes, that's it." Professor Qin said.
"Is this still a bug?" Qiu Tianning raised his hands and questioned.
"Today's bugs are no longer the bugs we understand." Brother Yi said, "Professor, will all bugs infected with the second-generation virus change their appearance to be more suitable for attack?"
"I don't know. The second-generation virus has just been discovered and we haven't had time to conduct large-scale infection experiments."
"What about that generation of viruses? No effective antibodies have been found yet?" Brother Yi asked again.
The most effective method for my virus is autoimmunity. The search for expanded virus antibodies has been started since the establishment of the laboratory, but there has been little progress.
"No." Xu Jiaye finally found a chance to speak, "Currently, there is no insect that can be effectively immune to the puffed virus."
Professor Qin said: "If you have antibodies, you don't have to worry about it. The structures of the two viruses are basically the same. An antibody that is effective against one virus will definitely be effective against the other virus."
"Speed up as much as possible. The expanded virus has already released its second generation, but we can't even deal with the first-generation virus. If we continue like this, the third-generation virus might come out one day." Brother No. 1 said disappointedly.
"We will work hard," Professor Qin promised.
When the communication ended, Professor Qin fell into deep thought.
In order to search for antibodies to puffed viruses, the laboratory has conducted a large number of infection experiments using various insects as carriers. However, the immune systems of experimental insects ignore puffed viruses, and no antibodies to puffed viruses have been found so far.
The experimental team believes that this situation occurs because the infection by the puffed virus does not harm the insects, or it may be that the puffed virus interferes with the insect's immune system.
In short, attempts to use insects to find antibodies have hit a dead end.
The laboratory did not stop there, but continued to conduct experiments using other types of organisms.
Various non-insect crustaceans, reptiles, birds, fish, and even mammals have not escaped the poisonous hands of the experimenters. However, even if the virus has an effect on these things, no virus antibodies can still be found.
Although antibodies cannot be found, we cannot capture all the bugs in the world and bring them into the laboratory for vaccination. However, we can artificially create a microorganism that can produce antibodies in the insect's body after infecting the insect, or directly kill the puffed virus.
Of course, laboratory research is not completely fruitless. Through a large number of experiments, some microorganisms that can restrain puffed viruses have indeed been found, and there are quite a lot of them.
However, none of these microorganisms can infect insects. The laboratory is currently working hard to experiment and plans to strip the anti-puffing virus gene fragments from these microorganisms and transplant them into the body of the puffing virus to fight against the puffing virus.
Using other types of insect viruses as vectors for gene transplantation is also a good idea, but the infection range of puffed viruses is extremely wide. So far, humans have not found any microorganism that can compete with puffed viruses, so puffed viruses have become experimental
Best choice for rooms.
Unfortunately, the laboratory cannot even isolate gene fragments, let alone transplant them.
What exactly should be done to achieve a breakthrough?
