Highlights•Members of several new clades of giant viruses have been isolated in the past
few years.•Most of these viruses were isolated on amoebae.•Other protists are likely to host …

The family Marseilleviridae was the second family of giant viruses that was described in
2013, after the family Mimiviridae. Marseillevirus marseillevirus, isolated in 2007 by …

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mark that contributes to various regulations in all
domains of life. Giant viruses are widespread dsDNA viruses with gene contents …

Acanthamoeba are infected by a remarkable diversity of large dsDNA viruses, the infectious
cycles of which have been characterized using genomics, transcriptomics and electron …

Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) blur the line between viruses and cells.
Melbournevirus (MelV, family Marseilleviridae) belongs to a new family of NCLDVs. Here we …

Highlights•Co-culture with protozoa is the main tool for giant virus isolation.•New isolation
strategies are a major issue to enhance the diversity of viral isolates.•Major progress in giant …

The history of giant viruses began in 2003 with the identification of Acanthamoeba
polyphaga mimivirus. Since then, giant viruses of amoeba enlightened an unknown part of …

Marseilleviridae members are large dsDNA viruses with icosahedral particles 250 nm in
diameter infecting Acanthamoeba. Their 340 to 390 kb genomes encode 450 to 550 protein …

Members of the family Marseilleviridae are giant viruses that have the ability to infect
amoebas. Such viruses were initially described in 2009. Since then, this family has grown …

The family Marseilleviridae, defined as a group of icosahedral double-stranded DNA viruses
with particle size of approximately 250 nm and genome size of 350–380 kbp, belongs to the …