Cafeteria roenbergensis virus | |
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Virus classification | |
Group: | Group I (dsDNA) |
Family: | Mimiviridae |
Species | |
Cafeteria roenbergensis virus |
Cafeteria roenbergensis virus (CroV) is a giant virus that infects the marine zooplankton Cafeteria roenbergensis [1]. CroV has the largest genome of any known marine virus, consisting of ~730,000 base pairs of double-stranded DNA. Among its 544 predicted protein-coding genes are several that are usually restricted to cellular organisms, such as translation factors and enzymes for DNA repair and carbohydrate synthesis. CroV is distantly related to Mimivirus and belongs to a group of viruses known as Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses.[2] CroV is itself parasitized by a virophage named "Mavirus".[3][4]