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Mimivirus inaugurated in the 21st century the beginning of a reclassification of viruses.

Vikas Sharma,P. Colson,P. Pontarotti,D. Raoult

Published 2016 in Current Opinion in Microbiology

ABSTRACT

Mimivirus and other giant viruses are visible by light microscopy and bona fide microbes that differ from other viruses and from cells that have a ribosome. They can be defined by: giant virion and genome sizes; their complexity, with the presence of DNA and mRNAs and dozens or hundreds of proteins in virions; the presence of translation-associated components; a mobilome including (pro)virophages (and a defence mechanism, named MIMIVIRE, against them) and transpovirons; their monophyly; the presence of the most archaic protein motifs they share with cellular organisms but not other viruses; a broader host range than other viruses. These features show that giant viruses are specific, autonomous, biological entities that warrant the creation of a new branch of microbes.

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