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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

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE concludes this weekend on the continuation of the historical vignette about the development of the smallpox vaccine in the west. An equally interesting history could be told about its very early development in China and India. This history shows that the development of medical advances can, at times, be based on flimsy evidence, uncontrolled experiments, apples-and-oranges source materials, a degree of quackery mixed with obsession, and a decidedly zig-zag path. But despite this, these advances can occur. View in LinkedIn

“RAPID EVOLUTION of viral genes, a common phenomenon that is likely to have occurred in the history of the giant viruses, especially immediately following the acquisition of the respective genes from the host, can obscure their affinity with homologs from cellular organisms within one of the recognized domains.” https://lnkd.in/eU7uHHB View in LinkedIn