The
organism was initially called NLF, for “new life form”. Jean-Michel
Claverie and Chantal Abergel, evolutionary biologists at Aix-Marseille
University in France, found it in a water sample collected off the coast
of Chile, where it seemed to be infecting and killing amoebae. Under a
microscope, it appeared as a large, dark spot, about the size of a small
bacterial cell.
Later, after the researchers discovered a
similar organism in a pond in Australia, they realized that both are
viruses — the largest yet found. Each is around 1 micrometre long and
0.5 micrometres across, and their respective genomes top out at 1.9
million and 2.5 million bases — making the viruses larger than many
bacteria and even some eukaryotic cells.
But these viruses, described today in Science, are more than mere
record-breakers — they also hint at unknown parts of the tree of life.
Just 7% of their genes match those in existing databases.
“What
the hell is going on with the other genes?” asks Claverie. “This opens a
Pandora’s box. What kinds of discoveries are going to come from
studying the contents?” The researchers call these giants
Pandoraviruses.
“This is a major discovery that substantially
expands the complexity of the giant viruses and confirms that viral
diversity is still largely underexplored,” says Christelle Desnues, a
virologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in
Marseilles, who was not involved in the study.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
The
organism was initially called NLF, for “new life form”. Jean-Michel
Claverie and Chantal Abergel, evolutionary biologists at Aix-Marseille
University in France, found it in a water sample collected off the coast
of Chile, where it seemed to be infecting and killing amoebae. Under a
microscope, it appeared as a large, dark spot, about the size of a small
bacterial cell.
Later, after the researchers discovered a similar organism in a pond in Australia, they realized that both are viruses — the largest yet found. Each is around 1 micrometre long and 0.5 micrometres across, and their respective genomes top out at 1.9 million and 2.5 million bases — making the viruses larger than many bacteria and even some eukaryotic cells.
But these viruses, described today in Science, are more than mere record-breakers — they also hint at unknown parts of the tree of life. Just 7% of their genes match those in existing databases.
“What the hell is going on with the other genes?” asks Claverie. “This opens a Pandora’s box. What kinds of discoveries are going to come from studying the contents?” The researchers call these giants Pandoraviruses.
“This is a major discovery that substantially expands the complexity of the giant viruses and confirms that viral diversity is still largely underexplored,” says Christelle Desnues, a virologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Marseilles, who was not involved in the study.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Later, after the researchers discovered a similar organism in a pond in Australia, they realized that both are viruses — the largest yet found. Each is around 1 micrometre long and 0.5 micrometres across, and their respective genomes top out at 1.9 million and 2.5 million bases — making the viruses larger than many bacteria and even some eukaryotic cells.
But these viruses, described today in Science, are more than mere record-breakers — they also hint at unknown parts of the tree of life. Just 7% of their genes match those in existing databases.
“What the hell is going on with the other genes?” asks Claverie. “This opens a Pandora’s box. What kinds of discoveries are going to come from studying the contents?” The researchers call these giants Pandoraviruses.
“This is a major discovery that substantially expands the complexity of the giant viruses and confirms that viral diversity is still largely underexplored,” says Christelle Desnues, a virologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Marseilles, who was not involved in the study.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
![Virus Genome Finding Points To New Branch In Tree Of Life
The organism was initially called NLF, for “new life form”. Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Abergel, evolutionary biologists at Aix-Marseille University in France, found it in a water sample collected off the coast of Chile, where it seemed to be infecting and killing amoebae. Under a microscope, it appeared as a large, dark spot, about the size of a small bacterial cell.
Later, after the researchers discovered a similar organism in a pond in Australia, they realized that both are viruses — the largest yet found. Each is around 1 micrometre long and 0.5 micrometres across, and their respective genomes top out at 1.9 million and 2.5 million bases — making the viruses larger than many bacteria and even some eukaryotic cells.
But these viruses, described today in Science, are more than mere record-breakers — they also hint at unknown parts of the tree of life. Just 7% of their genes match those in existing databases.
“What the hell is going on with the other genes?” asks Claverie. “This opens a Pandora’s box. What kinds of discoveries are going to come from studying the contents?” The researchers call these giants Pandoraviruses.
“This is a major discovery that substantially expands the complexity of the giant viruses and confirms that viral diversity is still largely underexplored,” says Christelle Desnues, a virologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Marseilles, who was not involved in the study.
What do you make of this find, @[310818639019033:274:Ancient Explorers]?
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/20/virus-genome-fourth-domain-life_n_3624207.html](https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1351_382411068526456_1835748038_n.jpg)
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