Desnues et al, 2012.In the contact lens fluid of a French woman with inflamed eyes, scientists have discovered several new parasites, nested inside one another like Russian dolls.
Bernard La Scola and Christelle Desnues from the CNRS in France found that the fluid was contaminated with an amoeba infected by a new giant virus, which they called Lentille virus. Inside that, they found a virophage—a virus that can only replicate in cells infected by another virus—which they called Sputnik 2. Deeper still, they found tiny chunks of parasitic DNA, which they called transpovirons, that can hop around Lentille virus genomes and stow away inside Sputnik 2. They published their results today (October 15) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lentille belongs to a group of giant viruses called Mimiviridae. First discovered in 2003, new members have been rapidly added to the family tree ever since. “This story again reveals another ...
