Giant viruses are much more diverse in shape and size than scientists previously thought, according to a new study.
Giant viruses lurking in the soils of a New England forest sport traits never seen in other viruses of similar heft — from star-like outer shells to bizarre, tubular appendages, according to a preprint study published in bioRxiv.
Giant viruses usually range from 0.2 to 1.5 micrometers in size and have complex genomes that can carry up to 2.5 million DNA base pairs, according to the study. That's much larger than most viruses, such as influenza viruses, which range from 0.08 to 0.12 micrometers in diameter. So far, giant viruses have primarily been found to infect single-cell organisms, like amoebas, rather than animals or humans.
That said, because Fischer and his colleagues did not run their own genomic analyses, they cannot definitively call the newfound particles"viruses," he explained, and instead called them"virus-like" in their report. But in all likelihood, they are in fact viruses, he said. Although Fischer and his team are not yet sure which functions these bizarre features serve, he speculated that some of the viruses' characteristics may help them better attach to their host cells. The researchers also believe that similar giant viruses could be found in the soils of other hardwood forests around the world.
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