Giant viruses

Giant Viruses

Giant viruses infecting algae.

Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus (PBCV-1) is the prototype of a family of large, icosahedral, plaque-forming, double-stranded-DNA-containing viruses that replicate in certain unicellular, eukaryotic chlorella-like green algae. DNA sequence analysis of its 330, 742-bp genome leads to the prediction that this phycodnavirus has 376 protein-encoding genes and 10 transfer RNA genes. The predicted...

Gene repertoire of amoeba-associated giant viruses.

Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, Marseillevirus, and Sputnik, a virophage, are intra-amoebal viruses that have been isolated from water collected in cooling towers. They have provided fascinating data and have raised exciting questions about viruses definition and evolution. Mimivirus and Marseillevirus have been classified in the nucleo-cytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) class. Their geno...

Unusual life style of giant chlorella viruses.

Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus (PBCV-1) is the prototype of a family of large, icosahedral, plaque-forming, dsDNA viruses that replicate in certain unicellular, eukaryotic chlorella-like green algae. Its 330-kb genome contains approximately 373 protein-encoding genes and 11 tRNA genes. The predicted gene products of approximately 50% of these genes resemble proteins of known function, incl...

Giant Viruses of Amoebas: An Update

During the 12 past years, five new or putative virus families encompassing several members, namely Mimiviridae, Marseilleviridae, pandoraviruses, faustoviruses, and virophages were described. In addition, Pithovirus sibericum and Mollivirus sibericum represent type strains of putative new giant virus families. All these viruses were isolated using amoebal coculture methods. These giant viruses ...