They infect algae, rewire photosynthesis, and shape ocean life from the shadows. Meet the newly discovered giants of the sea. #GiantViruses #OceanScience #MarineEcology
https://geekoo.news/the-giants-that-rule-the-microbial-ocean/
#giantViruses
Giant virus encodes key piece of protein-making machinery of cellular life
"Viruses are integral to the functioning of ocean ecosystems, influencing biological productivity, shifting community interactions, and driving evolutionary change,"
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-giant-virus-encodes-key-piece.html
Hunting down giant #viruses that attack tiny algae https://phys.org/news/2024-09-giant-viruses-tiny-algae.html
Single-cell RNA-seq of the rare #virosphere reveals the native hosts of giant viruses in the marine environment https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01669-y
"#GiantViruses inhabiting the oceans infect, among others, various species of single-celled #algae... Viral infection can cause a rapid collapse of #AlgalBlooms"
New #ISEPpapers! Genomic analyses of Symbiomonas scintillans show no evidence for endosymbiotic #bacteria but does reveal the presence of #GiantViruses https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1011218 #protists #symbiosis #viruses #genomics #microbes @PLOS by Anna Cho et al.
4-JUN-2024
#GiantViruses found on #Greenland ice sheet
The viruses probably regulate the growth of snow #algae on the ice by infecting them. Knowing how to control these #viruses could help us reduce some of the ice from melting.
<< that's fascinating but I really don't think they are going to stop the #ClimateCatastrophe for us.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1047048 #science #ecology #environment #microbiology
Giant viral signatures on the Greenland ice sheet
A giant virus infecting the amoeboflagellate Naegleria
Another interesting study suggesting that giant viruses can control phototaxis in their hosts during infection
"Hijacking of internal calcium dynamics by intracellularly residing viral rhodopsins"
"... we show here that light irradiation reversibly modified tail movements of OLPVR1-expressing frog tadpoles."
Gene duplication as a major force driving the genome expansion in some giant viruses
Kratosvirus quantuckense: the history and novelty of an algal bloom disrupting virus and a model for giant virus research
Latest taxonomic update for giant viruses, including a new name for the famous mimivirus (now Mimivirus bradfordmassiliense)
Taxonomy for the titans of the virosphere!
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00705-023-05906-3
#GiantViruses encode many strange genes in their genomes - partial TCA cycles, actins and myosins, nutrient transporters, etc
What are they doing with all of these crazy genes?
We discuss this in a recent article - big thanks to all of the collaborators who were willing to help write an extensive review!
Virologs, viral mimicry, and #virocell metabolism: the expanding scale of cellular functions encoded in the complex genomes of giant #viruses
https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/47/5/fuad053/7280998?login=false
Virophages are viruses that infect giant viruses, typically resulting in a lower burst size for the giant virus. In our latest preprint we report virophage-like sequences associated with insect poxviruses.
Their genomes of these elements are really interesting. This also opens up the possibility that hyperparasitic viruses are associated with a much broader range of DNA viruses than is commonly thought.
Nice study on polar giant viruses!
Genomic adaptation of giant viruses in polar oceans
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41910-6
#viruses #GiantViruses #virology #oceanography #marine #ocean #polar
A fantastical world of potential giant viruses lurks beneath the soil
"These and other peculiar-looking shapes “clearly tell us that we’ve underestimated how structurally diverse these viruses are,”"
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/potential-giant-viruses-soil-microbiology
"Welcome to Loveraft Country"
Bizarre giant viruses with tubular tentacles and star-like shells discovered in New England forest
Giant viruses are much more diverse in shape and size than scientists previously thought, according to a new study.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/microbiology/bizarre-giant-viruses-with-tubular-tentacles-and-star-like-shells-discovered-in-new-england-forest #GiantViruses #tentacles #NewEngland #shells #diverse
Phylogenetic diversity and functional potential of large and cell-associated viruses in the Bay of Bengal
Amazing structural diversity of giant virus-like particles in forest soil
Happy to share a collaborative preprint with Assaf Vardi's group in which we use single cell transcriptomics to link giant viruses with their native hosts during a marine algal bloom!
This approach is quite sensitive - we were able to identify viruses infecting one protist group that made up <0.5% of the community.
Homing in on the rare virosphere reveals the native host of giant viruses
It's been a big mystery why giant viruses encode so many proteins involved in vesicular transport and cytoskeletal dynamics. This interesting paper examined a dynamin homolog and found evidence that it's involved in mitochondrial membrane remodelling during infection.
A Novel Group of Dynamin-Related Proteins Shared by Eukaryotes and Giant Viruses Is Able to Remodel Mitochondria From Within the Matrix
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/40/6/msad134/7190697?login=false
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