medusavirus

plural medusaviruses

1. biologyA giant virus infecting amoebae causing them to shrivel and harden.

   MGVL27, medusaviruses, sylvanviruses and MGVL24 represented the viral lineages with the highest genome novelty...

   2020 January 22, Frederik Shulz et al., “Giant virus diversity and host interactions through global metagenomics”, in Nature, volume 578, →DOI, pages 432–436

   2 more examples

   Here, we report the novel features of medusavirus, a large DNA virus newly isolated from hot spring water in Japan.

   2019 February 6, Genki Yoshikawa et al., “Medusavirus, a Novel Large DNA Virus Discovered from Hot Spring Water”, in Journal of Virology, →DOI

   On the other hand, medusavirus-infected amoeba cells show moderately decreased cell motility later than those of mimivirus-infected cells and change the cells to a cyst-like formation.

   2020 January 17, Sho Fukaya et al., “Kinetic Analysis of the Motility of Giant Virus-Infected Amoebae Using Phase-Contrast Microscopic Images”, in Frontiers in Microbiology, →DOI

1. biologyAn informal genus of the informal family Medusaviridae, large DNA viruses that infect amoeba.

   The newest giant virus is Medusavirus, so named because of the way it infects amoebas, single-celled organisms that commonly live in water.

   2019 March 20, Sarah Zhang, “Beware the Medusavirus”, in The Atlantic

   2 more examples

   Many of the NCLDVs, including the phycodnavirus Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus (PBCV-1), the iridovirus Chilo iridescent virus (CIV), the mimivirus Cafeteria roenbergensis virus (CroV), or the giant amoeba-infecting Faustovirus, Pacmanvirus, and Medusavirus, present large icosahedral capsids composed of trimers of a MCP that displays a double jelly-roll fold.

   2019 October 24, German Andrés et al., “The cryo-EM structure of African swine fever virus unravels a unique architecture comprising two icosahedral protein capsids and two lipoprotein membranes”, in Journal of Biological Chemistry, →DOI

   Furthermore, we identified 5 A. triangularis homologous sequences shared with Medusavirus, a giant virus that replicates on Acanthamoeba castellanii, which was isolated from hot spring water.

   2020 March 16, Issam Hasni et al., “Description of Virulent Factors and Horizontal Gene Transfers of Keratitis-Associated Amoeba Acanthamoeba Triangularis by Genome Analysis”, in Pathogens, →DOI