Mega-virus discovered?

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Mar 30 2003 - 09:08:28 MST

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    In a questionable report, British scientists have reported
    the discovery of a virus that weighs in at 800 KBases of DNA,
    perhaps 900+ genes and a diameter of 400+ nm.

    See:
    "Massive virus discovered in water tower", New Scientist 27 Mar 03
    http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993559

    La Scola B, Audic S, Robert C, Jungang L, de Lamballerie X, Drancourt M,
    Birtles R, Claverie JM, Raoult D.
    A giant virus in amoebae.
    Science. 2003 Mar 28;299(5615):2033. No abstract available.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12663918&dopt=Abstract

    If accurate -- it would significantly push up the limit for genomic
    sizes for viruses which previously had an upper limit of around 300K
    bases of DNA.

    See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/PMGifs/Genomes/vis.html for some examples.

    (This is significant because it significantly extends the envelope of
    what we could borrow from nature (in terms of "machinery") to patch
    the human genome without having to transition from viruses to bacteria.)

    R.

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