The mysterious soil virus gene was first discovered

In every handful of soil, there are billions of bacteria, fungi and viruses that maintain the cycle
of life.

Soil viruses contain genes that appear to have certain metabolic functions, but they are clearly not necessary for normal viral replication
.

Specifically, the researchers irradiated fragile crystalline protein samples
with high-brightness X-rays produced by Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Source (SSRL) beamlines 12-2 from the DOE SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

AMG doesn't help viruses replicate like many viral genes
.

"We saw the location of every atom in the viral protein, which helped us figure out how it works," said
Clyde Smith, a senior researcher and co-author at SSRL.

Janet K.

"Our collaboration with SLAC allows us to decipher previously unknown functions of soil viruses," Jansson said
.

Breaks down chitin

The researchers believe that the virus AMG in the study encodes an enzyme that performs a degradation reaction
to chitin.

The virus AMG in the study is thought to be a chitosan enzyme protein that was identified as a member of
the glycosyl hydrolase GH75 family from sequence analysis.

Capturing the atomic structure of chitosanase proteins requires taking more than 5,000 photos
from crystal samples.

"Part of this enzyme is completely new
.

Future research may give us an understanding of why amgs exist because they don't help viruses replicate
, Smith said.

"One of the big questions raised by this discovery is, 'What in the soil needs the carbon in chittensin?' Answering such questions will give us a deeper understanding
of the interaction of a large number of microorganisms in the soil, the movement of nutrients and essential molecules, and the overall health of the soil.

This work was supported
by the U.