''Mollivirus sibericum'' is a
giant virus
A giant virus, sometimes referred to as a girus, is a very large virus, some of which are larger than typical bacteria. All known giant viruses belong to the phylum ''Nucleocytoviricota''.
Description
While the exact criteria as defined in the s ...
discovered in 2015 by
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
researchers Chantal Abergel and Jean-Michel Claverie in a 30,000-year-old sample of Siberian
permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
, where the team had previously found the unrelated giant virus ''
Pithovirus sibericum
''Pithovirus'', first described in a 2014 paper, is a genus of giant virus known from two species, ''Pithovirus sibericum'', which infects amoebas and ''Pithovirus massiliensis''. It is a base pair, double-stranded DNA virus, and is a member of ...
''. ''Mollivirus sibericum'' is a spherical
DNA virus
A DNA virus is a virus that has a genome made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that is replicated by a DNA polymerase. They can be divided between those that have two strands of DNA in their genome, called double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses, and ...
with a diameter of 500–600 nanometers (0.5–0.6 μm).
''Mollivirus sibericum'' is the fourth ancient virus that scientists have found frozen in
permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
since 2003.
Description
''Mollivirus sibericum'' is an approximately spherical virion 0.6 μm in diameter. It encloses a 651 kb
GC-rich genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...
encoding 523
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
s, of which 64% are
ORF
ORF or Orf may refer to:
* Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF
* Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute
* One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel
* Open reading frame, a portion of the ...
s.
[Strom, Marcu]
Prehistoric 'Frankenvirus' Mollivirus sibericum uncovered in Siberian permafrost
''Sydney Morning Herald''. December 14, 2014 The host's
ribosomal protein
A ribosomal protein (r-protein or rProtein) is any of the proteins that, in conjunction with rRNA, make up the ribosomal subunits involved in the cellular process of translation. ''E. coli'', other bacteria and Archaea have a 30S small subunit an ...
s are packaged in the virion.
See also
*
Virus classification
Virus classification is the process of naming viruses and placing them into a taxonomic system similar to the classification systems used for cellular organisms.
Viruses are classified by phenotypic characteristics, such as morphology, nucleic ac ...
*
Introduction to viruses
A virus is a tiny infectious agent that reproduces inside the cells of living hosts. When infected, the host cell is forced to rapidly produce thousands of identical copies of the original virus. Unlike most living things, viruses do not ...
*
List of viruses
This is an index of lists of virus taxa.
By taxonomic rank
* List of higher virus taxa, i.e. all taxa above the rank of family
* List of virus families and subfamilies
* List of virus genera
:''This is a list of genera of biological viruses. See ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q20940245
Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses
Taxa described in 2015