Meaning of pithovirus | Babel Free

Definitions

Any of the genus Pithovirus of giant viruses known from one species, Pithovirus sibericum, which infects amoebas.

Examples

“Evolutionary biologists Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Abergel, the husband-and-wife team at Aix-Marseille University in France who led the work, named it Pithovirus sibericum, inspired by the Greek word 'pithos' for the large container used by the ancient Greeks to store wine and food.”

“In this context, Pithovirus was initially spotted using light microscopy as ovoid particles (Fig. S1) multiplying in a culture of Acanthamoeba castellanii inoculated with a sample of Siberian permafrost from the Kolyma lowland region.”

“The discovery of “giant” viruses such as mimiviruses (La Scola et al., 2003), megaviruses (Arslan et al., 2011), pandoraviruses (Philippe et al., 2013), and pithoviruses (Legendre et al., 2014) now creates a continuum in genome size and functional complexity between the virosphere and cells.”

“But the Pithovirus is largest of all, reaching an enormous 1.5 μ, larger than many bacteria.”

CEFR level