ArticlePLoS biology2008
Distinct DNA exit and packaging portals in the virus Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus.
Article in PLoS biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers.
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Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 179 citations in OpenAlex.
- Infection cycles of viruses of the phylum Nucleocytoviricota.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Elucidating the protein interaction network of one of the largest icosahedral capsids in the virosphere.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Reassessing viral origins and evolutionary placement in the tree of life.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- Intracellular iron positively modulates the replicative cycle of mimiviruses, increasing virus production.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- Evolutionarily conserved grammar rules viral factories of amoeba-infecting members of the hyperdiverseProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Mimivirus transcription and translation occur at well-defined locations within amoeba host cells.Journal of virology · 2025Article
- A dinoflagellate-infecting giant virus with a micron-length tail.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Ultrastructural and transcriptional changes during a giant virus infection of a green alga.Npj viruses · 2025Article
- 20 years of research on giant viruses.Npj viruses · 2025Review
- Acanthamoeba polyphaga de novo transcriptome and its dynamics during Mimivirus infection.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Iron‑sulfur clusters in viral proteins: Exploring their elusive nature, roles and new avenues for targeting infections.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular cell research · 2024Review
- Functional redundancy revealed by the deletion of the mimivirus GMC-oxidoreductase genes.microLife · 2024Article
- Surface fibrils on the particles of nucleocytoviruses: A review.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2023Review
- Revolving ATPase motors as asymmetrical hexamers in translocating lengthy dsDNA via conformational changes and electrostatic interactions in phi29, T7, herpesvirus, mimivirus,Exploration (Beijing, China) · 2023Review
- Review
- Amoebal Tubulin Cleavage Late during Infection Is a Characteristic Feature ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Giant virus biology and diversity in the era of genome-resolved metagenomics.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2022Review
- The Astounding World of Glycans from Giant Viruses.Chemical reviews · 2022Review
- Megaviruses contain various genes encoding for eukaryotic vesicle trafficking factors.Traffic (Copenhagen, Denmark) · 2022Article
- The giant mimivirus 1.2 Mb genome is elegantly organized into a 30-nm diameter helical protein shield.eLife · 2022Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Icosahedral double-stranded DNA viruses use a single portal for genome delivery and packaging. The extensive structural similarity revealed by such portals in diverse viruses, as well as their invariable positioning at a unique icosahedral vertex, led to the consensus that a particular, highly conserved vertex-portal architecture is essential for viral DNA translocations. Here we present an exception to this paradigm by demonstrating that genome delivery and packaging in the virus Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus occur through two distinct portals. By using high-resolution techniques, including electron tomography and cryo-scanning electron microscopy, we show that Mimivirus genome delivery entails a large-scale conformational change of the capsid, whereby five icosahedral faces open up. This opening, which occurs at a unique vertex of the capsid that we coined the "stargate", allows for the formation of a massive membrane conduit through which the viral DNA is released. A transient aperture centered at an icosahedral face distal to the DNA delivery site acts as a non-vertex DNA packaging portal. In conjunction with comparative genomic studies, our observations imply a viral packaging pathway akin to bacterial DNA segregation, which might be shared by diverse internal membrane-containing viruses.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.