Unravelling the Mystery

UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERY It certainly felt strange setting foot on a land which hadn’t been inhabited for decades. The fallen leaves on the pavement crackled under my footsteps. Anybody who saw us might have easily confused us for a ghost because of our attire. There was no one on that island apart from the 8 of us. ‘Hello, guys! Welcome to the special episode of Medlytalks. Today we are here to investigate on a ghost island in Australia. This island is said to be cursed and has a terrible past.

I’m going to be exploring this place, in detail. So, stay tuned for updates’ I say to my vlogging camera in a muffled voice, which could barely make its way through my protective equipment.

I was one of the five members of the investigation team from the National History channel, who were sent to Netris Island in Australia. It was once an exotic, self-sustained island with around 2000 inhabitants. Exactly fifty years ago, something strange started happening to people living here. Some of the people began showing weird behaviors all of a sudden. People lost sense with reality, had hallucinations, started believing they had superpowers. Symptoms varied among people. People of all ages seemed to be affected and showed varying degrees of psychosis episodes. Most of them were taken to a hospital, for treatment and diagnosis, on an island nearby. People were worried. Survival rates of affected individuals were strikingly low.

Autopsies revealed that there was some kind of external factor in their environment, causing aggregation of proteins in the neurons which manifested as symptoms. After sequencing the samples from patients, there was speculation that a neurological virus from an unknown source might have caused it. As more and more people started having episodes of psychosis, the government decided to evacuate all the residents elsewhere. Until recently, no one was allowed to enter the island.

Since we had limited time to investigate, it was critical to chalk out a detailed plan to make the most out of what we had. Pointing the camera at myself, I said, “My assigned task for the day is to bring back specimens of plants from the southern part of the island. I mean, y’all know that I love plants. By the way, other members are investigating the kinds of microbes present in soil, air and houses. We are also doing animal surveys. This is to make sure that we get a comprehensive understanding.” It felt like I was talking into a void. My love for plants has been unequivocal. I studied ferns in graduate school before I took up a job here as a research assistant. I have always believed that they are the most amazing creatures out there. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love plants?

I started collecting as many plants as I can, most of which I could recognise. Some plants were invasive ones, while others native to the island. I also stopped here and there to take some video shots. Just before I called it a day, these unique little plants caught my attention. Pointing the camera at the plant, I said ‘It resembles a fern, but it’s nothing like I have seen before. Now that I notice, it seems like every household here seems to have cultivated this plant. I wonder how I didn’t notice it earlier’. I quickly collected this fern-like plant, though it had nothing to do with our study.

My legs and back were sore after walking for so long in the excruciating sun. We were moved to an island nearby, which we would call home for the next few days. After showing no symptoms of the psychosis which plagued anyone who had entered Netris island, I was allowed to go back to our lab in Australia.

I got back to work immediately. I started with sequencing the plant which had caught my attention, the fern-like one. It had these beautiful bright pink spores. After a quick search in the

database, I was indeed convinced that it was an unknown one. I quickly decided to sequence its genome of the spores to make sure. I also ran it through an RNA-seq analysis mainly because I had done a lot of them in grad school. Unlike the olden times, sequencing is cheaper and is routinely done. I hastily pulled out my laptop and connected the USB sequencing device. My sequencing got done in 4 hours. A quick comparison suggested that there was something peculiar. It was a new fern species, but the results indicated that a new kind of virus might have severely infected it. I pick up my vlogging camera and say, ‘This is strange. I just sequenced the genome of this new fern species, and it’s weird’. What followed was a relentless searching and figuring out what this anomaly meant. Does this imply something? Is this the answer that we are looking for?

After deliberating over this for hours and countless hours of searching, the database suggested that this virus is the same virus that had created havoc in humans. If this is indeed true, it would be the first plant virus which infects humans too. We quickly write it up. However, a lot of unknowns prevail, and this isn’t a definitive conclusion. How is it that the spores have the virus in them? How does it infect humans and cause symptoms? If it is a new virus are there any others similar to this? This was just a baby step into the realm of the unknown. A lot more research was needed. I picked up the camera ‘OH MY GOSH! We just found something new. The neurological virus is spread by the spores of a fern plant that grows rapidly, causing psychosis in everyone who breathes them…’ *One year later* I finally got to upload my video onto YouTube. More advances have been made since then.

The new class of neurological virus now has a name. Netriavirus. Scientists are still trying to understand its workings. As for how the plant got there? Since the ferns looked ornamental, it was probably bought by someone, just to grow them in their garden, not knowing what disaster it contained. Ferns are still alive and are dispersing their spores. The island can never be inhabited until we find ways to eliminate them. The video has over ten million views and the documentary about the island is to be aired soon. After all this, do I still love plants? Of course, I do. We wouldn’t be alive without them! ***End***