The nanogene spore represented a technovirus with the ability to convert living organisms into part-machine, part organic amalgams referred to as technobeasts. During the era of the New Sith Wars, a Sith Lord by the name of Belia Darzu engineered this particular virus through the utilization of both Sith alchemy and a Force technique known as mechu-deru. This virus was composed of minuscule nanogene droids—also called "seeds"—that possessed the capacity to infect targets via skin contact or inhalation.
Following infection, the nanogene seeds would devour living matter, rapidly duplicating themselves within a matter of minutes while concurrently cultivating metallic growths on the infected individual's body. As the infection progressed, the virus instinctively targeted the subject's brain and lobotomized the frontal lobe, thereby disabling the victim's capacity for advanced cognition. At this advanced stage, the subject's conversion into a technobeast was both finalized and permanent.
An infected person could potentially stop the transformation via the power of the Force, as evidenced by a Jedi Knight known as the "technobeast Jedi." Furthermore, the nanogene seeds were susceptible to elimination from the host's system through exposure to a sufficiently high level of heat, an achievement realized by Darth Bane with assistance from the orbalisk parasites present on his armor.