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THE BRIDGE TO FAR. “The giant viruses defy the textbook definition of viruses as “filterable” infectious agents because their enormous virions do not pass bacterial filters, and once and for all invalidate the separation between viruses and cellular life forms based on size.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

TWO LIFE FORMS. “Polintons are actually polintoviruses, a novel group of dsDNA viruses that can exist also in the form of transposon-like provirus elements that are integrated with the host genomes and transmitted vertically across host generations.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

ENORMOUS BREAKTHROUGH. “The discovery of giant viruses (sometimes called “giruses”) infecting protists, pioneered by the isolation of Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, is one of the most unexpected and certainly the most widely publicized breakthrough in virology in decades.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

LARGE DIVERSE GENOMES. “The genomes of Polintons are large by transposon standards, 15–20 kb, and encode arrays of diverse proteins. However, several proteins are shared by all Polintons, including protein-primed type B DNA polymerase (pPolB), RVE family integrase, FtsK-like DNA-packaging ATPase, and an adenovirus-type cysteine protease implicated in the maturation of capsid proteins.” https://lnkd.in/eU7uHHB View in LinkedIn

EUKARYOTIC VIRUSES. “There are 10 families of eukaryotic dsDNA viruses that do not show clear evolutionary relationship to the polintoviruses or the “Megavirales”. These viruses are characterized by rather narrow host ranges, most of them being found only in animals.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

LARGE DIVERSE GENOMES. “The genomes of Polintons are large by transposon standards, 15–20 kb, and encode arrays of diverse proteins. However, several proteins are shared by all Polintons, including protein-primed type B DNA polymerase (pPolB), RVE family integrase, FtsK-like DNA-packaging ATPase, and an adenovirus-type cysteine protease implicated in the maturation of capsid proteins.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

VIRAL PARASITES OF GIANT VIRUSES. “The virophages retain many features of polintoviruses but followed a different strategy to adapt to reproduction in the cytoplasm of the host cells. Instead of encoding their own machinery for cytoplasmic propagation, these viruses evolved to parasitize their giant relatives by exploiting the transcription apparatus and other functions of the giant viruses.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT ANCESTORS: polintoviruses as the first group of eukaryotic dsDNA viruses that evolved from prokaryotic viral ancestors and played a central role in the evolution of eukaryotic viruses and selfish elements.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

TWO VIRAL LIFE PATHS. By contrast with the Polintoviruses, “the “Megavirales” evolved via the route of increasing complexity and autonomy.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.12728/full View in LinkedIn

Bottle and can deposit return scheme gets green light in England. Finally!! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/27/bottle-and-can-deposit-return-scheme-gets-green-light-in-england?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other View in LinkedIn