Genomics of Giant Viruses

Dear Colleagues,

The giant viruses discovered in 2003 have since been shown to be common in our biosphere. Their genetic diversity has expanded considerably, and sequences closest to those of giant viruses are frequently and sometimes abundantly found in metagenomes, potentially leading to the assembly of complete genomes. However, some isolated giant viruses have a genome sufficiently divergent to escape such detections based on similarity searches. This suggests that knowledge on the diversity of giant viruses is still rather incomplete. Analyses of the genomes of giant viruses revealed a complexity similar to that of small cellular organisms, with characteristics that distinguish them from classical viruses, including genes that are hallmarks of cellular organisms. In addition, they demonstrate the significant mosaicism of these genomes resulting from numerous transfers of sequences and integration events as well as considerable proportions of ORFans. These various features make the genomics of giant viruses, that we are addressing in this Special Issue, a hot topic in the field of evolutionary biology.

Prof. Dr. Philippe Colson
Guest Editor

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