http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/15/nbug15.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/15/ixhome.html
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The Bradford bug that may be a new life form
Reports by Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 15/10/2004)
A strange life form has been identified in Bradford.
Genetic analysis reveals that the organism is so bizarre and unlike anything else seen by scientists that perhaps it should be placed in its own category of living things.
...
The "giant virus", dubbed the Mimivirus, or "mimicking microbe", because it was first mistaken for a bacterium, inhabits amoebae and is more than twice as big as any other virus so far found. At about half a millionth of a metre across - around the size of a small bacterium - it is one of the few that can be seen under a light microscope.
...
The size and complexity of the Mimivirus genetic code - which is 1.2 million "letters" long, at least 10 times larger than the code of a typical virus - "challenges the established frontier between viruses and parasitic cellular organisms", they report today in the journal Science.
...
The Mimivirus - which so far has only been found in Bradford - appears to represent a new family of "nucleocytoplasmic" large DNA viruses that emerged with the first life on Earth some four billion years ago, said Prof Raoult. After much debate among his team, "for the first time we have enough genetic information to conclude that there is a fourth domain of life", he said. "If this is true, this is revolutionary."
The other three domains of life are the eukaryotes, which have cells that contain a nucleus, and the prokaryotes, unicellular organisms that are divided into the bacteria and archaea.
The family tree drawn up by Prof Claverie shows that the Mimivirus is no more related to the eukaryotes as it is to bacteria. 'This organism is as old as all the rest of living organisms," he said.
...
The giant virus has not so far been linked with disease.
Reports by Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 15/10/2004)
A strange life form has been identified in Bradford.
Genetic analysis reveals that the organism is so bizarre and unlike anything else seen by scientists that perhaps it should be placed in its own category of living things.
...
The "giant virus", dubbed the Mimivirus, or "mimicking microbe", because it was first mistaken for a bacterium, inhabits amoebae and is more than twice as big as any other virus so far found. At about half a millionth of a metre across - around the size of a small bacterium - it is one of the few that can be seen under a light microscope.
...
The size and complexity of the Mimivirus genetic code - which is 1.2 million "letters" long, at least 10 times larger than the code of a typical virus - "challenges the established frontier between viruses and parasitic cellular organisms", they report today in the journal Science.
...
The Mimivirus - which so far has only been found in Bradford - appears to represent a new family of "nucleocytoplasmic" large DNA viruses that emerged with the first life on Earth some four billion years ago, said Prof Raoult. After much debate among his team, "for the first time we have enough genetic information to conclude that there is a fourth domain of life", he said. "If this is true, this is revolutionary."
The other three domains of life are the eukaryotes, which have cells that contain a nucleus, and the prokaryotes, unicellular organisms that are divided into the bacteria and archaea.
The family tree drawn up by Prof Claverie shows that the Mimivirus is no more related to the eukaryotes as it is to bacteria. 'This organism is as old as all the rest of living organisms," he said.
...
The giant virus has not so far been linked with disease.