#mimivirus

CRISPR-like ‘immune’ system discovered in giant virus

Gigantic mimiviruses fend off invaders using defences similar to the CRISPR system deployed by bacteria and other microorganisms, French researchers report1. They say that the discovery of a working immune system in a mimivirus bolsters their claim that the giant virus represents a new branch in the tree of life.

Mimiviruses are so large that they are visible under a light microscope. Around half a micrometre across, and first found infecting amoebae living in a water tower, they boast genomes that are larger than those of some bacteria. They are distantly related to viruses that include smallpox, but unlike most viruses, they have genes to make amino acids, DNA letters and complex proteins.

That means that they blur the line between non-living viruses and living microbes, says Didier Raoult, a microbiologist at Aix-Marseille University in France, who co-led the study with microbiologist colleague Bernard La Scola. Raoult says that he doesn’t consider the mimivirus to be a typical virus; instead, it is more like a prokaryote — microbes, including bacteria, that lack nuclei.

Researchers snap giant virus in 3-D

HONG KONG: First isolated in 1992 from Acanthamoeba polyphaga growing in a water tower in Bradford, UK, Mimivirus is one of the largest, most complex viruses known. The Mimivirus’ structure is so similar to that of the amoeba that it was only identified as a virus in 2003. The virus appears to be an icosahedral-shaped particle with a diameter of 400 nm and no envelope, surrounded by 80-nm-long…

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Acest virus foarte vechi,…