Posted 04.14.2010 at 12:45 pm
8 Comments
Tree Afflicted With Chestnut Blight Don't worry. Far as anyone knows, blight still isn't contagious for humans.
James Bowe, via Flickr.com
From rabies to bird flu to HIV, diseases passing from animals to humans is a well-known phenomenon. But a virus jumping from plants to humans? Never. At least, that's what doctors thought until Didier Raoult of the University of the Mediterranean in Marseilles, France, discovered that the mild mottle virus found in peppers may be causing fever, aches, and itching in humans. If validated, this would mark the first time a plant virus has been found to cause problems in people.
Plant viruses are routinely found in human feces, along with the digested plant matter they infected. Based on that presence, Raoult interviewed 304 people about how frequently they suffered from fever, abdominal pain, and skin irritation. Of the 304 patients, the 21 people with pepper mild mottle virus in their feces were more likely than the others to present those symptoms.
Not everyone is convinced, however. Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, claims the virus lacks the biochemical key needed to gain entry into a cell, and thus couldn't possibly infect human tissue. Additionally, since Raoult only asked about very general, common symptoms, Garry believes that the results might be within random variation.
Raoult, obviously, stands by his discovery, and claims that what he observed may not be the infection of human cells by the virus per se, but viral RNA accidental interfering with the function of human RNA. Either way, this looks to be a quirk of biology, not a concerted evolution by a plant disease to infect animals. So please, feel safe going back to gardening without wearing a SARS mask.
8 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Science
138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
.jpg)
February 2012: The Future of Fun
Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
Science
- A Dozen Science and Tech Stories to Expect in 2012
- Gallery: The Best Way to Unbuild a Dam
- 200,000-Year-Old Patch of Seagrass Is the World's Oldest Living Organism
- Video Gallery: The Most Amazing Movies of the Minuscule World
- MIT Scientist Offers $100,000 to Anyone Who Can Prove Quantum Computing Is Impossible
- Antarctica's Frozen Lake Vostok, Isolated for 20 Million Years, Breached By Russian Drills
- To Compare Human and Monkey Brains, Humans and Monkeys Watch a Clint Eastwood Film
- The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, January 30-February 3, 2012
- Archive Gallery: PopSci Hunts For Mythical Beasts
- Images of the Week, January 30-February 3, 2012
Most Emailed
Science
- 200,000-Year-Old Patch of Seagrass Is the World's Oldest Living Organism
- Video Gallery: The Most Amazing Movies of the Minuscule World
- MIT Scientist Offers $100,000 to Anyone Who Can Prove Quantum Computing Is Impossible
- Antarctica's Frozen Lake Vostok, Isolated for 20 Million Years, Breached By Russian Drills
- To Compare Human and Monkey Brains, Humans and Monkeys Watch a Clint Eastwood Film
- The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, January 30-February 3, 2012
- Archive Gallery: PopSci Hunts For Mythical Beasts
- Images of the Week, January 30-February 3, 2012
- 10-Year-Old Accidentally Creates New Molecule in Science Class
- Russian Scientists Drilling into "Alien" Antarctic Lake Vostok Fall Silent
Most Commented
Science
- The Moon Should Be the 51st State, and Other Space Dreams From Newt Gingrich
- Russian Scientists Drilling into "Alien" Antarctic Lake Vostok Fall Silent
- 10-Year-Old Accidentally Creates New Molecule in Science Class
- A New Moratorium on Research Into Engineered Avian Flu: What It Means for Science
- Should Scientists Be Held Legally Responsible for Their Results?
- Hilarious "Theory of Everything" Paper Provokes Kerfuffle
- New Climate Change Culprit: Chilean Man Stealing Glaciers to Put In Cocktails
- FYI: Do Animals Dream?
- How D-Dalus Flies Like Nothing Else
- How Men Can Decode Women's Menstrual Cycles
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
infect this plant/human virus in poppy plants, so people can't use heroin :-)
Yeay a way to get plant dna into my cells, I AM PEPPER MAN so... what kinda super powers do i get?
umm.. isn't there a way to take human cells and use this virus on them to check if they are infected?
don't labs do that, like all the time?
Why would trees and other plants ever want to start a biological war with the humans? What have humans ever done to them? Oh, wait ... nevermind.
Maybe the people felt sick not because of the virus but the dying plant that they were eating. When salad turns brown and now sits in the brown liquid that has been shed from its once crisp green self, do you think that maybe its just going to upset your stomach and who knows what else. Anybody want to try eating that and see if you get sick, if so, I think you may have found a virus that infects us both.
30bcf4e2
So...just how is this "evidence" of anything?
Honestly, this article is silly. Not the topic itself which is really hot but the manner the "facts" are put together.
The photo showing necrotic lines on horse chestnut leaves is totally out of place as it's not showing the blight (btw. this is caused by fungus NOT a virus) and as the damage visible is NOT caused by a virus but rather by a caterpillar of a moth, the so called horse chestnut leaf miner (Cameraria ohridella). Please check wikipedia for Horse-chestnut_leaf_miner at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse-chestnut_leaf_miner
So, Stuart write 100x "I shall not say stupid things."
Viruses produce chemical toxins just as bacteria and fungi. Therefore it is irrelevant regard to it source, be it plant or animal. The end result of damage to the tissue, animal or plant is the same in terms of sickness or mortality.