The Marseillevirus is the prototype of a family of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses

Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses

The nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses or NCLDV refers to a number of families of large eukaryotic DNA viruses:# Asfarviridae# Iridoviridae# Marseilleviridae# Megaviridae# Mimiviridae# Phycodnaviridae# Poxviridae...

 (NCLDV) of eukaryotes (commonly known as Giant Viruses). It was isolated from amoeba

Amoeba

Amoeba is a genus of Protozoa.History=The amoeba was first discovered by August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof in 1757. Early naturalists referred to Amoeba as the Proteus animalcule after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape...

.

The genome

Genome

In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....

 of the virus

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

 includes typical NCLDV core genes

Gênes

Gênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy, named after the city of Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa, and it was divided in the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...

 and genes apparently obtained from eukaryotic hosts

Host (biology)

In biology, a host is an organism that harbors a parasite, or a mutual or commensal symbiont, typically providing nourishment and shelter. In botany, a host plant is one that supplies food resources and substrate for certain insects or other fauna...

 and their parasites

Parasitism

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...

 or symbionts, both bacterial and viral

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

, through probably horizontal gene transfer

Horizontal gene transfer

Horizontal gene transfer , also lateral gene transfer , is any process in which an organism incorporates genetic material from another organism without being the offspring of that organism...

 mechanism.

Virology

The genome

Genome

In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....

 has a length of 368-kb, with a G+C content of 44.73%, which makes Marseillevirus the fifth largest viral genome sequenced so far. It encodes a minimum of 49 proteins, and some messenger RNAs.

See also

Other Giant viruses:

• Mimivirus
  Mimivirus
  Mimivirus is a viral genus containing a single identified species named Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus , or is a group of phylogenetically related large viruses . In colloquial speech, APMV is more commonly referred to as just “mimivirus”...
  
  
• Mamavirus
  Mamavirus
  Mamavirus is one of the most complex viruses discovered. It is a virus belonging to the family mimiviridae, which includes mimivirus, mamavirus, and marseillevirus The mimiviridae also belong to the family of the nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses , which includes the Poxviridae, the...
  
  
• Emiliania huxleyi virus 86
• Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus NY2A.