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Amid Biosciences' Blog

Giant Viruses: Can They Make Proteins?

Giant Viruses Phage Protein Synthesis

           Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute have discovered four new species of giant viruses by analyzing metagenomic data from a wastewater treatment plant sample in Klosterneuburg, Austria (1). These viruses dubbed “Klosneuviruses” possess a more complete set of translation machinery genes than any other virus known to date. Klosneuviruses, for example, contains genes for aminoacyl-tRNA (transfer ribonucleic acid) enzymes with specificity for 19 out of 20 amino acids, along with more than 20 tRNAs, an array of translation factors and tRNA modifying enzymes.           Dr. Eugene Koonin, a co-author on...

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