Mollivirus sibericum explained

Mollivirus sibericum is a giant virus discovered in 2015 by French researchers Chantal Abergel and Jean-Michel Claverie in a 30,000-year-old sample of Siberian permafrost, where the team had previously found the unrelated giant virus Alphapithovirus sibericum. Mollivirus sibericum is a spherical DNA virus with a diameter of 500–600 nanometers (0.5–0.6 μm).^{[1] [2]}

Mollivirus sibericum is the fourth ancient virus that scientists have found frozen in permafrost since 2003.^[3] It has a sister taxon, Mollivirus kamchatka.^[4]

Description

Mollivirus sibericum is an approximately spherical virion 0.6 μm in diameter. It encloses a 651 kb GC-rich genome encoding 523 proteins, of which 64% are ORFs.^{[1] [5]} The host's ribosomal proteins are packaged in the virion.^[1]

See also

• Virus classification
• Introduction to viruses
• List of viruses

Notes and References

1. Legendre. Matthieu. Lartigue. Audrey. Bertaux. Lionel. Jeudy. Sandra. Bartoli. Julia. Lescot. Magali. Alempic. Jean-Marie. Ramus. Claire. Bruley. Christophe. Labadie. Karine. Shmakova. Lyubov. Rivkina. Elizaveta. Couté. Yohann. Abergel. Chantal. Claverie. Jean-Michel. In-depth study of, a new 30,000-y-old giant virus infecting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 8 September 2015. E5327–E5335. 10.1073/pnas.1510795112. 112. 38. 26351664. 4586845. free.
2. News: Christensen. Jen. Ancient squirrel's nest leads to discovery of giant virus. 13 September 2015. CNN. 11 September 2015.
3. Feltman, Rachel A giant ancient virus was just uncovered in melting ice — and it won't be the last Washington Post. 14 December 2015
4. Christo-Foroux . Eugene . Alempic . Jean-Marie . Lartigue . Audrey . Santini . Sebastien . Labadie . Karine . Legendre . Matthieu . Abergel . Chantal . Claverie . Jean-Michel . Characterization of Mollivirus kamchatka, the First Modern Representative of the Proposed Molliviridae Family of Giant Viruses . Journal of Virology . 31 March 2020 . 94 . 8 . 10.1128/jvi.01997-19 . 17 August 2024 . en . 9173294733.
5. News: Strom . Marcus . Prehistoric 'Frankenvirus' Mollivirus sibericum uncovered in Siberian permafrost . Sydney Morning Herald . 14 December 2014.