Gigantic Viruses

The fundamentally important way of viruses group known as the giant viruses. They were so big about a hundred times bigger than typical viruses that scientists mistook them for bacteria. But a close look revealed that they infected amoebae and built new copies of themselves. A planet of viruses, giant viruses certainly straddle the boundary between viruses and cellular life. Flu viruses may only have ten genes, but giant viruses may have 1,000 or more. When giant viruses invade a host cell, they don't burst open like other viruses, so assemble into a virus factory that sucks in building blocks and spit out large pieces of future giant viruses. Giant viruses even get infected with their own viruses.

Many of their genes are different from those found in cellular life forms, or even other viruses. It's possible that giant viruses amassed their enourmous genetic armamentarium over billions of years, picking up genes from long extinct host swapping them with other viruses we have yet to find.

From the new study have suggested that giant viruses are indeed ancient. It is the work of team of French researchers led by Jean Michael Claverie, who went searching for new giant viruses in the water near a marine biology situation in Chile. They found a new kind so different from other giant viruses that they gave it a name of its own.