An international research team recently discovered that a virus in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park in the United States has a structurally special outer membrane that allows it to withstand high temperature and strong acid environments. This unprecedented membrane construction may provide inspiration for designing new, tough materials.

The virus is called AVF1, which can infect the hospitable acidophilus in the hot springs, which is an archaea that loves the acidic environment. AVF1 has a super tough protective outer membrane that allows it to withstand the hot spring environment where water temperature exceeds 80 degrees Celsius and is extremely acidic. However, the specific structure of this membrane has not been known.

Institutional scientists such as the University of Virginia and the Pasteur Institute in the United States reported in the American journal Biomedical Science, Electronic Life, that they combined electron microscopy and computer modeling to find that the outer membrane of AVF1 virus is about 2 nanometers thick, composed of lipids. Molecular composition. These molecules are bent into a horseshoe shape to give the film a high stability, which has never been found in nature before.

In most organisms, the various membranes inside the cell are usually two-layer lipid membranes; the membranes of archaea are monolayers, such as bilayer membranes. Scientists have found that the membrane of the AVF1 virus is also monolayer, and the raw material is derived from the membrane of the host cell, but the structure is different. In other words, the virus steals some structurally flexible lipid molecules from the host and bends them into a horseshoe shape to form their own new membrane.

Scientists involved in the study say that this type of construction has great potential, such as the manufacture of tough nanomedical "packaging materials" that can be used to carry drug molecules into designated parts of a patient's body and then release them without reaching their destination. It was damaged before; it may also be used to design new building materials to make buildings resistant to strong earthquakes.

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