Chloroviruses: Not Your Everyday Plant VirusVirology Papers
Date of this Version1-1-2012
Published in Trends in Plant Science 17:1 (January 2012), pp. 1-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2011.10.005
AbstractViruses infecting higher plants are among the smallest viruses known and typically have four to ten protein-encoding genes. By contrast, many viruses that infect algae (classified in the virus family Phycodnaviridae) are among the largest viruses found to date and have up to 600 protein- encoding genes. This brief review focuses on one group of plaque-forming phycodnaviruses that infect unicellular chlorella-like green algae. The prototype chlorovirus PBCV-1 has more than 400 protein-encoding genes and 11 tRNA genes. About 40% of the PBCV-1 encoded proteins resemble proteins of known function including many that are completely unexpected for a virus. In many respects, chlorovirus infection resembles bacterial infection by tailed bacteriophages.
Citation InformationJames L. Van Etten and David D. Dunigan. "Chloroviruses: Not Your Everyday Plant Virus" (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/david_dunigan/7/