Fun primer with @ForeverYHChang highlighting a lovely Travis Thomson lab paper!
Did animals co-opt viral gag for intercellular (trans synaptic) communication? Or did viruses co-opt retrotransposon gags that animals had previously co-opted for intercellular use?
Josh Dubnau
Yung-Heng Chang & @joshdubnau.bsky.social explore a @plosbiology.org study revealing that the #retrotransposon gag protein of Copia forms virus-like capsids that transfer its own RNA across the fly neuromuscular junction to regulate #synapse formation 🧪 Paper: plos.io/3X71IDa Primer: plos.io/4i6rzmC
