r/interestingasfuck • u/ThumYorky • 26d ago

This pixelated leaf I found /r/ALL

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u/throwaway_0122 26d ago

I did not realize plants could get viruses

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u/StupidityHurts 26d ago

They like pretty much every other living thing can be infected with all the usual stuff.

Fungi, viruses, bacteria, and parasites.

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u/Dragonsandman 26d ago

Viruses that infect bacteria have some potential for medical applications, particularly for potentially dealing with drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. They're not a silver bullet solution, but there's been quite a lot of research that's been conducted on using bacteriophages in this manner, particularly in Georgia (the country) and in Russia.

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u/uberguby 26d ago

Also, if anybody hasn't seen a bacteriophage before, they are one of the coolest
microscopic (nanoscopic?) structures in nature. I feel like in the context of "anti-bacterial research" we might get the impression that the "walking syringe with payload" structure is artificial, but that just happened, out there in the world.