Giant viruses may be more alive than we thought A giant virus encodes part of the protein-making toolkit of cells that gives it greater control over its amoeba host, raising questions about how it evolved and how such beings relate to living organisms

Giant viruses may be more alive than we thought #Science #Biology #Microbiology #GiantViruses #MicrobiologyResearch #LifeScience

www.newscientist.com/article/2515941-giant-vi...

Single-cell genomics reveals complex microbial and viral associations in ciliates and testate amoebae - Nature Communications Protist microbiomes are poorly understood. Here, the authors analysed single protist cells to profile their microbiomes and viromes showing that these tiny eukaryotes serve as environmental hubs for hidden bacterial symbionts and diverse giant viruses.

Single-cell genomics reveals complex microbial and viral associations in ciliates and testate amoebae

#Symbiosis #Protists #GiantViruses

Single-cell genomics reveals complex microbial and viral associations in ciliates and testate amoebae - Nature Communications Protist microbiomes are poorly understood. Here, the authors analysed single protist cells to profile their microbiomes and viromes showing that these tiny eukaryotes serve as environmental hubs for hidden bacterial symbionts and diverse giant viruses.

Single-cell genomics reveals complex microbial and viral associations in ciliates and testate amoebae

#Symbiosis #Protists #GiantViruses

Really happy to have been granted a #ERCCoG, grateful to the team who made this possible, and to the community who considered this work promising! If you (or someone you know) are/is interested in #chromatin evolution and #giantViruses, please do get in touch, there will be positions available.

Strain-level diversity of giant viruses infecting chlorarachniophyte algae in the subtropical North Pacific Giant DNA viruses are ubiquitous among unicellular eukaryotes and occur in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Despite intense metagenomic data mining, their strain-level diversity remai...

Strain-level diversity of #giantViruses infecting #chlorarachniophyte #algae in the subtropical North Pacific

by @fischerlab.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Proud moment to see the first Master student of the team (Lotte Mayer) successfully defend her Master's thesis work digging into viral factories of #giantViruses.

A link to part of her work:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

@erc.europa.eu @univie.ac.at @cemess.bsky.social @dome-vienna.bsky.social

#giantViruses

Melbournevirus encodes a shorter H2B-H2A doublet histone variant that forms structurally distinct nucleosome structures Nature Communications - Melbournevirus encodes a conserved shorter H2B-H2A doublet variant. Here the authors report a cryo-EM structure of a nucleosome-like particle reconstituted with viral H4-H3...

our paper is online! rdcu.be/exXBX . Who would have thought that some #giantviruses not only have #histones, but even histone variants that make weird #nucleosomes (pdb 9CVT). Fantastic work from Ale Villalta and Chelsea Toner, with Hugo Bisio @molbiolgv.bsky.social and Chantal Abergel

Hundreds of Mysterious Giant Viruses Discovered Lurking in The Ocean We've only just scratched the surface.

Hundreds of Mysterious Giant Viruses Discovered Lurking in The Ocean #Science #Biology #Microbiology #GiantViruses #MarineScience #MicrobialDiversity

The Giants That Rule the Microbial Ocean Scientists have identified 230 new giant ocean viruses, revealing their role in controlling marine life and unlocking biotech potential.

They infect algae, rewire photosynthesis, and shape ocean life from the shadows. Meet the newly discovered giants of the sea. #GiantViruses #OceanScience #MarineEcology

New work out!

Spearheaded by Lotte, we have developed a single-molecule messenger RNA fluorescence in situ hybridisation (smFISH) protocol for #giantViruses in an #Acanthamoeba host.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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#ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky @dome-vienna.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu

This work in MBE @official-smbe.bsky.social shows that the ancestor of #giantviruses likely infected amoeboid cells in an era with significantly increased oxygen levels on Earth and later spread across different lineages of eukaryotes through host shifts within hundreds of millions of years.

Host-Calibrated Time Tree Caps the Age of Giant Viruses Abstract. Viruses are widespread parasites with important impacts on public health, economy, and ecosystems. However, little is known about their origins,

Thrilled to share our new work in my first Bsky post.

How old are viruses? We developed a host-calibrated dating method and inferred the evolutionary timescale of #giantviruses that have large genomes and infect various eukaryotes (animals, algae and many others).
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

The world might be going down the crapper but look at our pretty #giantviruses...

20 years of research on giant viruses - npj Viruses npj Viruses - 20 years of research on giant viruses

I don't want to brag (mostly because I had nothing to do with it), but that's a really cool #npjViruses Review with everything you wanted to know about #giantviruses: www.nature.com/articles/s44...
#virus

by now you probably know that #giantviruses have #histones, but some also have histone variants! Check out our latest preprint on an essential H2B-H2A histone variant in Melbournevirus - a fantastic collaboration with the Abergel Lab, spearheaded by Ale Villalta. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Reposting for #VirEvol and #giantViruses

We sequenced some new #genomes!

Novel high-quality #amoeba genomes reveal widespread #codonUsage mismatch between #giantViruses and their hosts.

doi.org/10.1101/2024...

#ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky 🖥️🧬

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"Gene duplication as a major force driving the genome expansion in some giant viruses"-Machado et al describe a new giant virus, Cedratvirus pambiensis, and show that its 623,564 kb genome has evolved through gene duplication, a common theme among giant viruses. #giantViruses doi.org/10.1128/jvi....

Gene transfer among viruses substantially contributes to gene gain of giant viruses bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

#horizontalGeneTransfer in #giantViruses likely plays a large role in gene gain/loss events, up to 28-42%!

#VirEvol #EvolSky

doi.org/10.1101/2023...

Reposting for new #giantViruses

Reposting for new #giantViruses

Reposting for new #giantViruses

Reposting for new #VirEvol and #giantViruses

Reposting for new #VirEvol and #giantViruses

Because of strange ongoing problems with @skyfeed.xyz, I had to migrate the #giantViruses feed. It now runs on bluesky feed generator (blueskyfeedcreator.com) by @fyodork.bsky.nz. Since old posts are not migrated, I will do this by reposting them all.

Taxonomic update for giant viruses in the order Imitervirales (phylum Nucleocytoviricota) - Archives... Large DNA viruses in the phylum Nucleocytoviricota, sometimes referred to as “giant viruses” owing to their large genomes and virions, have been the subject of burgeoning interest over the last de...

Taxonomic update for #giantViruses in the order #Imitervirales (phylum #Nucleocytoviricota)

#VirEvol

doi.org/10.1007/s007...