Publication Date:
2013-07-23
Description:
Ten years ago, the discovery of Mimivirus, a virus infecting Acanthamoeba, initiated a reappraisal of the upper limits of the viral world, both in terms of particle size (〉0.7 micrometers) and genome complexity (〉1000 genes), dimensions typical of parasitic bacteria. The diversity of these giant viruses (the Megaviridae) was assessed by sampling a variety of aquatic environments and their associated sediments worldwide. We report the isolation of two giant viruses, one off the coast of central Chile, the other from a freshwater pond near Melbourne (Australia), without morphological or genomic resemblance to any previously defined virus families. Their micrometer-sized ovoid particles contain DNA genomes of at least 2.5 and 1.9 megabases, respectively. These viruses are the first members of the proposed "Pandoravirus" genus, a term reflecting their lack of similarity with previously described microorganisms and the surprises expected from their future study.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Philippe, Nadege -- Legendre, Matthieu -- Doutre, Gabriel -- Coute, Yohann -- Poirot, Olivier -- Lescot, Magali -- Arslan, Defne -- Seltzer, Virginie -- Bertaux, Lionel -- Bruley, Christophe -- Garin, Jerome -- Claverie, Jean-Michel -- Abergel, Chantal -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Jul 19;341(6143):281-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1239181.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Structural and Genomic Information Laboratory, UMR 7256 CNRS Aix-Marseille Universite, 163 Avenue de Luminy, Case 934, 13288 Marseille cedex 9, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23869018" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Amoeba/*virology
;
Base Sequence
;
*Evolution, Molecular
;
Fresh Water/virology
;
*Genome, Viral
;
Mimiviridae/*classification/*genetics/isolation & purification/ultrastructure
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Phylogeny
;
Proteomics
;
Seawater/virology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
