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Special Issue "Research Progresses of Giant Viruses: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Jean-Michel Claverie"

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A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "General Virology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2023 | Viewed by 26356

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Prof. Dr. David D. Dunigan

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Guest Editor

Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0900, USA
Interests: virus; giant virus; chlorovirus; aquatic ecology; symbiosis; host–virus interactions; 5 great questions
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Prof. Dr. Juliana Reis Cortines

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Guest Editor

Departamento de Virologia, Instituto de Mcirobiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 21590-902, Brazil
Interests: giant viruses; NCLVD; virus cycle; virus structure; protein chemistry

Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Araújo Lima Rodrigues

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Guest Editor

Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Interests: giant viruses; large viruses; viral genomics; virus evolution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Dear Colleagues,

Prof. Jean-Michel Claverie has made seminal contributions to giant virus biology. His training and experience in biochemistry, particle physics and computer sciences helped him in his breakthrough discovery and characterizations of Mimivirus in 2003, kicking off the Era of Giant Viruses. He and his colleagues have now described four new families of giant viruses in exotic environments: Mega/Mimiviridae, the Pandoraviruses, Pithovirus and Mollivirus. The field of paleovirology is newly established, having emerged with the discovery of vital permafrost samples dating back 30,000 years. Although many of the discovered viruses have genes with no known homologs, Prof. Claverie and his team are providing visionary hypotheses of gene origin and evolution. At the root of these discoveries is his deep understanding of the field of bioinformatics, allowing for the exploration of the planet via multiomics and computational methods. Importantly, Prof. Claverie has disseminated his findings across the scientific community, sharing his knowledge and experiences with colleagues from around the world. We would like to celebrate Prof. Claverie’s significant achievements and intellectual insights with this Special Issue focused on giant viruses. Original reports and reviews on the research progress on giant viruses, as well as brief commentaries on Prof. Claverie’s influence on the field are welcome. We look forward to receiving your manuscripts.

Prof. Dr. David D. Dunigan
Prof. Dr. Juliana Reis Cortines
Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Araújo Lima Rodrigues
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

giant virus
NCLDV
bioinformatics
mimivirus
paleovirology
genomics
virus hunter

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Open AccessArticle

Early-Phase Drive to the Precursor Pool: Chloroviruses Dive into the Deep End of Nucleotide Metabolism

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Viruses 2023, 15(4), 911; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15040911 - 31 Mar 2023

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Abstract

Viruses face many challenges on their road to successful replication, and they meet those challenges by reprogramming the intracellular environment. Two major issues challenging Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus 1 (PBCV-1, genus Chlorovirus, family Phycodnaviridae) at the level of DNA replication are (i) the host cell has a DNA G+C content of 66%, while the virus is 40%; and (ii) the initial quantity of DNA in the haploid host cell is approximately 50 fg, yet the virus will make approximately 350 fg of DNA within hours of infection to produce approximately 1000 virions per cell. Thus, the quality and quantity of DNA (and RNA) would seem to restrict replication efficiency, with the looming problem of viral DNA synthesis beginning in only 60–90 min. Our analysis includes (i) genomics and functional annotation to determine gene augmentation and complementation of the nucleotide biosynthesis pathway by the virus, (ii) transcriptional profiling of these genes, and (iii) metabolomics of nucleotide intermediates. The studies indicate that PBCV-1 reprograms the pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway to rebalance the intracellular nucleotide pools both qualitatively and quantitatively, prior to viral DNA amplification, and reflects the genomes of the progeny virus, providing a successful road to virus infection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Progresses of Giant Viruses: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Jean-Michel Claverie)

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Open AccessArticle

An Update on Eukaryotic Viruses Revived from Ancient Permafrost

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Viruses 2023, 15(2), 564; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15020564 - 18 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 24397

Abstract

One quarter of the Northern hemisphere is underlain by permanently frozen ground, referred to as permafrost. Due to climate warming, irreversibly thawing permafrost is releasing organic matter frozen for up to a million years, most of which decomposes into carbon dioxide and methane, further enhancing the greenhouse effect. Part of this organic matter also consists of revived cellular microbes (prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes) as well as viruses that have remained dormant since prehistorical times. While the literature abounds on descriptions of the rich and diverse prokaryotic microbiomes found in permafrost, no additional report about “live” viruses have been published since the two original studies describing pithovirus (in 2014) and mollivirus (in 2015). This wrongly suggests that such occurrences are rare and that “zombie viruses” are not a public health threat. To restore an appreciation closer to reality, we report the preliminary characterizations of 13 new viruses isolated from seven different ancient Siberian permafrost samples, one from the Lena river and one from Kamchatka cryosol. As expected from the host specificity imposed by our protocol, these viruses belong to five different clades infecting Acanthamoeba spp. but not previously revived from permafrost: Pandoravirus, Cedratvirus, Megavirus, and Pacmanvirus, in addition to a new Pithovirus strain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Progresses of Giant Viruses: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Jean-Michel Claverie)

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Asfarviruses and Closely Related Giant Viruses

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Viruses 2023, 15(4), 1015; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15041015 - 20 Apr 2023

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Abstract

Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, so called because of its “mimicking microbe”, was discovered in 2003 and was the founding member of the first family of giant viruses isolated from amoeba. These giant viruses, present in various environments, have opened up a previously unexplored field of virology. Since 2003, many other giant viruses have been isolated, founding new families and taxonomical groups. These include a new giant virus which was isolated in 2015, the result of the first co-culture on Vermamoeba vermiformis. This new giant virus was named “Faustovirus”. Its closest known relative at that time was African Swine Fever Virus. Pacmanvirus and Kaumoebavirus were subsequently discovered, exhibiting phylogenetic clustering with the two previous viruses and forming a new group with a putative common ancestor. In this study, we aimed to summarise the main features of the members of this group of giant viruses, including Abalone Asfarvirus, African Swine Fever Virus, Faustovirus, Pacmanvirus, and Kaumoebavirus. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Progresses of Giant Viruses: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Jean-Michel Claverie)

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Special Issue "Research Progresses of Giant Viruses: A Themed Issue Dedicated to Professor Jean-Michel Claverie"

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