Genetic manipulation of a #giantVirus -associated #virophage by Jingjie Chen, Hiroyuki Ogata, and Hiroyuki Hikida (cls.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/) @KyotoUniversity doi.org/10.64898/202...

With Eugene Koonin, we wrote a rather comprehensive review on the origin, evolution and organization of the #virosphere. We describe all 10 viral realms and the logic behind them, and so much more. Check it out! comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/biologies/ar...

Just published! Check out our review of the Nucleocytoviricota infection cycle. Great teamwork! @mkrupovic.bsky.social @willemsenanouk.bsky.social @fischerlab.bsky.social @puffy-virus.bsky.social

New Work out! A multilayered network reveals the centrality of newly discovered #Nucleocytoviricota in wastewater treatment plant communities w/ @dominikluecking.bsky.social & @amanzanom.bsky.social doi.org/10.64898/202... @erc.europa.eu @univie.ac.at @dome-vienna.bsky.social 1/4

Reposting for #VirEvol

Genomic islands in #Nucleocytoviricota. "[...] 37% of genomic islands are enriched in bacterial homologs, and several exhibit striking synteny with genomic regions recovered from environmentally co-occurring bacterial genomes [...]" doi.org/10.64898/202...

Most viruses rely on the host to provide the entire translation machinery. However, giant viruses have evolved to encode part of the machinery themselves. Latest discovery: mimivirus (APMV) encodes its own initiation factor (vIF4F) and specifically promotes translation of viral mRNA!

We had a special speaker today at @i2sysbio.es , Anouk Willemsen @willemsenanouk.bsky.social. I have known her since my PhD and I truly admire her work on giant viruses #viruses #microsky

For some reason, this didn't show up automatically in #giantVirus Single-cell genomics reveals complex microbial and viral associations in ciliates and testate amoebae "The frequent co-occurrence of giant viruses and microbial symbionts, especially in amoebae, suggests multipartite interactions"

On our way to the 6th Ringberg Symposium on Giant Virus Biology #ringbergGV2025

Last week we wrapped up the first edition of the Virus evolution and ecology course under the umbrella of the brand new Master in Microbiome Science offered @univie.ac.at. We learned about viruses, their evolution, and their ecological impact across different ecosystems. 1/2 #VirEvol

#microsky #phagesky #phage #virus academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Strain-level diversity of #giantViruses infecting #chlorarachniophyte #algae in the subtropical North Pacific by @fischerlab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Is it a flagellate? A tiny ball with tentacles? Contamination in my ciliate culture? NEW SUPERGROUP OF EUKARYOTES? Yes to all 4! Meet Solarion - just out in #Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415... Huge congrats to Marek Valt, Cepicka Lab & the star team! Very happy to be part of this project. #ProtistsOnSky

Reposting for #VirEvol

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

Last week #ESEB2025 wrapped up. It was a great opportunity to chat with colleagues, hear about great evolutionary research, present the group's work, and be a proud PI of Laura, who did a great job presenting her PhD work! Two years to go until next ESEB! @eseb2025.bsky.social

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

Heat Shock Protein 70 (AKA HSP70) in Mimiviridae and Phycodnaviridae likely originated from horizontal transfer from their protist hosts. By @sfelena.bsky.social & @amaachi.bsky.social doi.org/10.1101/2025... #giantVirus #VirEvol

Out now in its final peer-reviewed form @asm.org's Journal of Virology! doi.org/10.1128/jvi.... @dome-vienna.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @amersocvirology.bsky.social

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... 1/4 #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky @dome-vienna.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu

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...

Pacmanvirus isolated from the Lost City hydrothermal field extends the concept of transpoviron beyond the family Mimiviridae academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #jcampubs

Looking for a postdoc in environmental virology? Fascinated by giant viruses and their glycobiology? We have a position available at the MPI for Marine Microbiology! @mpimarinemicrobio.bsky.social @maxplanck.de career.mpi-bremen.de/jobposting/8...

Reposting for #VirEvol and #giantViruses

there is a new #giantvirus in town! and it speaks Finnish! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

behold our paper on Medusavirus nucleosomes. Fantastic work by Chelsea Toner, @nhoitsma.bsky.social, and Sashi Weerawarana This giant virus also encodes a linker histone, more about that in the paper 🧪👩‍🔬 🧵. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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 🖥️🧬 1/4

Back to the lab after a week of really great research on #virus #evolution in Roscoff! The VEE team was represented by Laura, @danischwarz.bsky.social, @dominikluecking.bsky.social, and myself. (Im)patiently waiting for the next edition of this great meeting! #VirEvol #CJM2024_virEvol

#Mriyaviricetes, those small #viruses related to #Nucleocytoviricota doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

#Txonomy update for the family #Circoviridae, by @viralnomad.bsky.social, @mkrupovic.bsky.social & co. doi.org/10.1007/s007... #VirEvol

The polinton-like supergroup of #viruses: #evolution, molecular biology, and #taxonomy Review by Koonin, Fischer, Kuhn,and @mkrupovic.bsky.social #VirEvol and related to #giantVirus doi.org/10.1128/mmbr...

Reposting for #VirEvol. New addition to the #Nucleocytoviricota: #Egovirales. Read more below 👇

We finally put it together! The first ICTV #Virus #Taxonomy Challenge provides a dataset of thousands of contigs from diverse viruses, asking bioinformaticians to classify them in an automated, reproducible way. See: ictv-vbeg.github.io/ICTV-Taxonom... - tell your bioinformaticians and colleagues!

ZOMBIE CELLS!!! 😱🧟🦠 @janbruewer.bsky.social and colleagues discover how #viruses keep #SAR11 in check and even turn them into zombies! Out now @natureportfolio.bsky.social Nat Comms mpi-bremen.de/en/Zombie-ce... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Great event last week strengthening research partnerships with colleagues from Kyoto University, particularly with the Ogata lab focusing on giant viruses @cemess.bsky.social @univie.ac.at

New #giantVirus on the block alert! Along with a great team of people lead by @patrickarthofer.bsky.social, Florian Panhölzl, and Matthias Horn, we describe a novel Catovirus infecting the amoeboflagellate #Naegleria @dome-vienna.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Reposting for #VirEvol

Another giant virus with histones y'all. Medusavirus has them all, and even linker histone (maybe?). Check out our latest preprint by the amazing Chelsea Toner and @nhoitsma.bsky.social biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Today we farewelled Ruixuan (Ogata lab, Kyoto Univ.) after a month and a half of intense microcopy work! here in the picture featured with the talented Lotte Mayer who supervised and taught him some of our lab techniques!

Experimental evolution work on the tripartite symbiotic system made up of the marine bacterivore Cafeteria burkhardae, the #giantVirus Cafeteria roenbergensis virus, and the virophage mavirus. #VirEvol #ProtistsOnSky doi.org/10.1093/ve/v...

New work out! Serendipitous discovery of a novel #leech-associated nutritional #symbiont. doi.org/10.1101/2023... Work led by PhD candidate Víctor with friends/colleagues Alejandro Oceguera-Figueroa & Sebastian Kvist @dome-vienna.bsky.social, IB-UNAM, @romtoronto.bsky.social #SymbioSky #MicroSky

On the evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in #Nucleocytoviricota genomes: a likely ancient origin of complex genomes in this viral phylum #VirEvol #EvolSky doi.org/10.1101/2023...

#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 #VirEvol

Reposting for new #VirEvol

Reposting for new #VirEvol

Reposting for new #giantViruses

Reposting for new #giantViruses