Bee kind to viruses

CUCUMBER mosaic virus is not restricted to its eponymous host. It can also ravage tomatoes—stunting them and causing them to produce contorted tendril-like leaves. Given this devastation, it is surprising susceptible plants continue to exist; natural selection should have produced resistance years ago. A paper in this week’s PLoS Pathogens, however, explains the apparent contradiction. The team that wrote it, led by John Carr of Cambridge University, found that the virus actually helps its host to reproduce. It does so using an unsuspecting accomplice: the bumble-bee.