Mimivirus, which was recently isolated from amoebae growing in the water of a cooling tower of a hospital in
The analysis of the genome, published last week in Sciencexpress, revealed that the virus is not entirely dependent on the translation machinery of its host, possessing genes relevant to all key steps of mRNA translation. In addition, it contains an unprecedented number of enzymes and putative metabolic pathways.
"The size and complexity of Mimivirus genome challenge the established frontier between viruses and parasitic cellular organisms," the researchers, based at two research institutes in Marseille, write in their article.