They’re not “for” anything. No evolutionary trait is. You’re suggesting intelligent design.
No one is suggesting intelligent design. On this planet we use what is known as “colloquialisms” in a non-professional setting. I hope your world learns them someday.
Strange thing to be insulted by, and strange response! It’s an interesting case. I’ve begun my documentation here
They’re for storing the molecular correlates of trauma, obviously :3
My wild speculation:
Viral snares/traps? Semi-permeable membrane + RNA; the virus gets in and binds to the RNA inside, then the viral package is “spent” on fake RNA that can’t replicate. The MVP shell could keep regular cellular machinery away from the trap RNA. There are thousands of these vaults within the cell, as to create a bunch of “pits” that a virus could fall into, thus effectively slowing viral spread, even a little?
edit: from a link in the article:
vault protein somehow helps epithelial cells internalize P. aeruginosa, which in turn speeds the clearance of an infection. Compared to normal mice, for example, MVP-less mice were 3 times as likely to die when their lungs were infected with the bacterium
This was mentioned as a hypothesis that was determined to be fruitless. Was this ever explored further? Different viruses, organ systems, etc.? Since it’s in a lot of different organisms, maybe some common virus that affects many different species is affected by this.
This is very interesting.
The infographic appears to be noob-friendly because of its title but then expects you to know what VPARP is and what it’s for
