00.110.0.01. Mimivirus 00.110. Unassigned

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Nature of Genome:
General Host Type:
Morphology:

dsDNA
Protozoa
not enveloped, isometric

Family	00.110. Unassigned
	Taxonomic Structure of the Family
	Family 00.110. Unassigned Genus 00.110.0.01. Mimivirus

Genus	00.110.0.01. Mimivirus
Type Species	00.110.0.01.001. Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus

List of Species Demarcation Criteria in the Genus

Not applicable.

List of Species in the Genus

The ICTVdB virus code and the viruses. Official virus species names are in italics. Tentative virus species names, alternative names ( ), isolates, strains, serotypes, subspecies, or rejected names are not italicized.

Virus codes, virus names, genome sequence accession numbers [ ] and assigned abbreviations ( ), are:

Species, their serotypes, strains and isolates

00.110.0.01.001.	Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus
00.110.0.01.001.00.001.	Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus	[AY653733]	(APMV)

Tentative Species in the Genus

None reported.

Similarity with other Taxa

Not available.

Derivation of Names

mimi for mimicking microbe.

References

Cite this publication as: Index of Viruses - Mimivirus (2006). In: ICTVdB - The Universal Virus Database, version 4. Büchen-Osmond, C (Ed), Columbia University, New York, USA. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/Ictv/fs_index.htm

Version 4 is based on Virus Taxonomy, Classification and Nomenclature of Viruses, 8th ICTV Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Fauquet, CM, Mayo, MA, Maniloff, J, Desselberger, U, and Ball, LA (EDS) (2005) Elsevier/Academic Press, pp. 1259.

Additional References

ICTV proposal presented at the ICV Virology Congress, San Francisco, 2005

D. Raoult, S. Audic, C. Robert, C. Abergel, P. Renesto, H. Ogata, B. La Scola, M. Susan, J.-M. Clayeriel recently reported the discovery and preliminary characterization of Acantamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (APMV)[1], the largest known virus, with a 600-nm particle size comparable to mycoplasma. APMV is a double-stranded DNA virus growing in amoebae. Its 1,181,404-base pair genome sequence [2] consists of 1262 putative ORFs, 10% of which exhibit a similarity to proteins of known functions. In addition to exceptional genome size, APMV exhibits many features that distinguish it from other nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses. The most unexpected is the presence of numerous genes encoding central protein-translation components, including four amino-acyl transfer RNA synthetases, peptide release factor 1, translation elongation factor EF-TU, and translation initiation factor 1. The genome also exhibits six tRNAs. Other notable features include the presence of both type I and type II topoisomerases, components of all DNA repair pathways, many polysaccharide synthesis enzymes, and one intein-containing gene [3]. The size and complexity of the APMV genome challenge the established frontier between viruses and parasitic cellular organisms [4]. We are engaged in a large scale functional/structural study to further characterize the numerous unique features of this giant virus [5, 6], as well a trying to isolate more members of the family Mimiviridae that we predicted to exist on the basis of metagenomic data [7, 8]. When APMV was used as an antigen in a microimmunofluorescense assay, seroconversion was found in patients with both community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia. APMV DNA was found in respiratory samples of a patient with hospital-acquired pneumonia [9].

1. La Scola B, Audic S, Robert C, Jungang L, de Lamballerie X, Drancourt M, Binges R, Claverie JM, Raoult D. A giant virus in amoebae. Science 2003, 299: 2033.
2. Raoult D, Audic S, Robert C, Abergel C, Renesto P, Ogata H, La Soda B, Suzan M, Claverie JM. The 1.2-megabase genome sequence of Mimivirus. Science 2004, 306: 1344-50.
3. Ogata H, Raoult D, Claverie JM. A new example of viral intein in Mimivirus. Virol J. 2005, 2: 8.
4. H. Ogata, C. Abergel, D. Raoult, J.-M. Claverie. Response to Comment on "The 1.2-Megabase Genome Sequence of Mimivirus" Science 2005, 308: 1114b
5. Jeudy S., Goutard B., Lebrun R. and Abergel C. Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus NDK: preliminary crystallographic analysis of the first viral nucleoside diphosphate kinase. Acta Cryst. 2005, F61: 569-572.
6. Abergel a, Chenivesse S., Byrne D., Suhre K., Arondel V. & Claverie J.-M. Mimivirus TyrRS: preliminary structural and functional characterization of the first amino-acyl tRNA synthetase found in a virus. Acta Cryst 2005, F61: 212-215
7. Claverie JM. Giant viruses In the oceans : the 4th Algal Virus Workshop. Virol. J.. 2005, 2: 52.
8. Ghedin E., Claverie JM. Relative of Mimivirus in the Sargasso Sea. Virol. J. 2005 (in press).
9. La Scola B, Marrie TJ, Auffray JP, Raoult D. Mimivirus in pneumonia patients. Emerg Infect Dis. 2005, 1: 449-52

Reference List from the 8th ICTV Report
ICTVdB taxon description
ICTVdB Picture Gallery

References to sequence databases at GenBank and PubMed Central:
PubMed Central References; nucleotide sequences; complete genomes

Additional access points to virus species lists, descriptions and images on the web:

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