Although the title says "just discovered", obelisks were discovered a year ago. Obelisks are RNA elements inside bacteria inside humans. Here are some links for more information:<p>The publication in Cell: <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01091-2" rel="nofollow">https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01091-2</a><p>The preprint: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.20.576352v1" rel="nofollow">https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.20.576352v1</a><p>An article about obelisks in Science: <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-insane-new-viruslike-entities-found-human-gut-microbes" rel="nofollow">https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-insane-new-viru...</a><p>An article in Derek Lowe's popular "In the Pipeline": <a href="https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/what-s-obelisk-anyway" rel="nofollow">https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/what-s-obelisk-any...</a>
The article makes it sound as though this is something only humans have. Which struck me as very odd.<p>But the paper in Cell says:<p>"• Found globally in diverse niches, obelisks also occur in human stool and oral microbiomes"<p><a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01091-2" rel="nofollow">https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01091-2</a><p>Much more reasonable.
This was a good thread on Obelisks: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42547489">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42547489</a>
If viruses usually aren't considered alive, why would obelisk? I'm also curious how we know these are independent structures versus a by product of our own or our resident bacteria's cellular function. The mRNA seems unrelated to our own, but perhaps there's an unknown process that either generates new extracellular mRNA to create these protiens referenced in the article. Alternatively, could these be mRNA strands that escaped the cellular destruction process?
Obelisks eh? I wish this article had more on the dimensions of these little critters. Was hoping to read that they’re of 1:4:9 proportions, and thus the given name was a sort of hat tip…<p>Cue Zarathustra