VTLSS: Larger than Life: The Underexplored World of Giant Viruses with Dr. Frank Aylward

Описание: Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) are a diverse group of eukaryotic viruses that include several families of “giant viruses” known for both their large virion size, reaching up to 1.5 𝜇m, and genomes reaching ~2.5 million base-pairs in length.

The discovery of the first giant virus, Acanthaomeba polyphaga Mimivirus, led to a paradigm shift in the field of virology by showing that, contrary to the traditional view of viruses as “filterable infectious agents”, viruses could be larger than even some cellular lineages both in terms of physical size and genomic contents.

Several subsequent studies have continued to expand our knowledge of NCLDV diversity through the discovery of numerous new viral families, and metagenomic surveys have begun to reveal a wealth of metabolic processes encoded by these viruses. Moreover, recent work has shown that giant viruses can endogenize their genome into those of their hosts, thereby shaping eukaryotic genome evolution.