Discovery and biological characteristics of Mimivirus

Abstract

Otkriće Mimivirusa (Acanthamoeba polyfaga mimivirus, APMV) potaknulo je velik interes znanstvenika za daljnje otkrivanje značajki, funkcija i same pojave velikih virusa čiji bi APMV mogao biti prvi predstavnik. Iako imaju glavne virusne značajke, Mimivirusi se od drugih virusa razlikuju prvenstveno svojom veličinom te veličinom samog genoma, koji se zbog svojih karakteristika može uspoređivati s genomima nekih staničnih organizama. U prilog tome ide činjenica da se Mimivirusi od malih intracelularnih bakterija razlikuju više-manje samo u odsutnosti ribosomskih proteina i pojedinih proteina uključenih u metabolizam i pretvorbu energije. Daljnja istraživanja pokušavaju odrediti koje točno organizme Mimivirusi mogu inficirati, a broj različitih domaćina svakim je danom sve veći. Moguće je da također da APMV predstavlja jednog od važnih uzročnika atipičnih upala pluća kod ljudi. Potrebno je napraviti još puno istraživanja kako bi u potpunosti razumjeli biologiju ovih virusa i mogli definirati njihovu evoluciju, mjesto na filogenetskom stablu i važnost u globalnom ekološkom sustavu.Discovery of Mimivirus (Acanthamoeba polyfaga mimivirus, APMV), the first discovered giant virus and a representative of the family Mimiviridae, aroused great interest of scientists to study the features, functions, and the origin of large viruses. Although they have all principal features of viruses, Mimiviruses differ primarily in size of the virion and genome. Mimiviruses genomes are comparable with the genomes of some cellular organisms, namely, small intracellular bacteria. They essentially differ only in the absence ribosomal proteins and certain proteins involved in the energy conversion processes. Further studies are focused on determining which organisms exactly Mimiviruses infect and a number of different hosts increases every day. It is also quite probable that APMV represents one of the atypical pneumonia agents in humans. Still, much research is needed in order to fully understand the biology of these viruses, their origin and evolution, as well as their role in the global ecosystem