Mollivirus sibericum is a giant virus discovered in 2015 by French researchers Chantal Abergel and Jean-Michel Claverie in a 30,000-year-old sample of Siberian permafrost, where the team had previously found the unrelated giant virus Alphapithovirus sibericum. Mollivirus sibericum is a spherical DNA virus with a diameter of 500–600 nanometers (0.5–0.6 μm).[1][2]
| Mollivirus sibericum | |
|---|---|
Virus classification  | |
| (unranked): | Virus |
| Genus: | Mollivirus |
| Species: | Mollivirus sibericum |
Mollivirus sibericum is the fourth ancient virus that scientists have found frozen in permafrost since 2003.[3] It has a sister taxon, Mollivirus kamchatka.[4]
Description
Mollivirus sibericum is an approximately spherical virion 0.6 μm in diameter. It encloses a 651 kb GC-rich genome encoding 523 proteins, of which 64% are ORFs.[1][5] The host's ribosomal proteins are packaged in the virion.[1]
See also
References
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