Apparently
there is such thing as a giant virus. I
had no clue a virus could achieve status of giant virus, but I guess anything
is possible when dealing with microbes and viruses. This certain strain of
giant virus was discovered in 2003 but not after being mistaken for bacteria
for almost eleven years. In 1992 it was discovered in Bradford, England when
Timothy Robotham was in search for the cause of local pneumonia outbreak. But
was mistakenly identified for a bacteria.
It
was not until eleven years later in 2003 when the error was corrected. The
giant virus received a name change, now known as Acanthamoeba
polyphaga, also know as mimivirus for
microbe-mimicking virus. The mimivirus is the largest virus ever discovered. To
be considered a giant a virus it must have a diameter of 200 nanometers or more
and the mimivirus is at 750 nanometers. The virus also has a very large genome,
consisting of 1.2 million base pairs.
The topic of these
giant viruses is fairly new, due to the fact that they have been largely
undetected until recent years. No that they have caught the attention of
virologist and scientist alike they have the spot light on them, they are
challenging the assumptions of the shape of the phylogenetic tree of life.
With all this new
information and discoveries that have been brought to light it is clear that
the past knowledge of viruses has been outdated and needs to be updated. Although
this information was very interesting and informative it was meant for a more
well informed audience with better knowledge about viruses.
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/giant-viruses
http://gamesolutions.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/attack-of-the-giant-viruses-logo.jpg
Wow, I didn't know that viruses could be that big. Especially with that large of an genome, I'm surprised that it wasn't discovered earlier. They really need to update this stuff in order to keep us people in track and in order to keep us in the light.
ReplyDeleteThis article is really interesting! Today I was actually thinking about how big a virus or bacterium could get! I think it's interesting how the virus is considered to be "big" but in reality its still probably invisible to the naked eye. Great article choice! :)
ReplyDeleteThis article brings up a lot of questions for me. Does the size of the virus change how dangerous it is, compared to a smaller one? I find it interesting that this was originally mistaken for a bacteria, and that it wasn't discovered as a virus until 2003. It kind of makes me question how much scientists know about viruses and bacteria. I wouldn't be surprised if they discovered more "bacteria" that was actually a virus. I wonder how many more viruses are considered "huge" and what kind of damage they can do. And also, does this change the microbe size/shape?
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post and comments and questions! The "biggest" bacterium that I talked about last Thursday wasn't discovered until 1995 and Cyanobacteria were thought to be algae for many years and were in fact called blue green algae for decades!
ReplyDelete