Additional species have since been recognized.[1] The first member of this family recognized has been named Acanthamoeba polyphaga marseillevirus. A second member is Acanthamoeba castellanii lausannevirus. Two additional viruses have been isolated but have yet to be named. Another member of this family has been isolated from blood donors.[4] An isolate from insects—Insectomime virus—has also been reported.[8]
The viruses appear to fall into at least 3 lineages: (1) Marseillevirus and Cannes8virus (2) Insectomime and Tunisvirus and (3) Lausannevirus. A sixth potential member of this family—Melbournevirus—appears to be related to the Marseillevirus/Cannes8virus clade.[9]
A seventh virus—Brazilian Marseillevirus—has been reported.[10] This virus appears to belong to a fourth lineage of virus in this family.
Another virus—Tokyovirus—has also been reported.[11]
Another putative member of this family is Marseillevirus shanghai. If this virus is confirmed, it would belong to the A lineage.
Structure
Viruses in Marseilleviridae have icosahedral geometries. The diameter is around 250 nm. Genomes are circular, around 372kb in length. The genome has 457 open reading frames.[6]
Genus
Structure
Symmetry
Capsid
Genomic arrangement
Genomic segmentation
Unassigned
Head-Tail
T=16
Non-enveloped
Linear
Monopartite
Marseillevirus
Icosahedral
Circular
Life cycle
DNA-templated transcription is the method of transcription. Amoeba serve as the natural host.[6]
Genus
Host details
Tissue tropism
Entry details
Release details
Replication site
Assembly site
Transmission
Marseillevirus
Amoeba
None
Fusion
Lysis
Cytoplasm
Cytoplasm
Diffusion in Water
Genomics
A promoter sequence—AAATATTT—has been found associated with 55% of the identified genes in this virus.[14] Most of these sequences occur in multiple copies.[citation needed]
History
One of the first members of this family was described in 2009.[15] Other members described around then (2007) and since then have been documented.[16]
^Chatterjee, Anirvan; Kondabagil, Kiran (2017). "Complete genome sequence of Kurlavirus, a novel member of the family Marseilleviridae isolated in Mumbai, India". Archives of Virology. 162 (10): 3243–3245. doi:10.1007/s00705-017-3469-z. PMID28685284. S2CID3984074.
^Fabre E, Jeudy S, Santini S, Legendre M, Trauchessec M, Claverie J-M, et al (2017). Noumeavirus replication relies on a transient remote control of the host nucleus. Nat Commun 8:15087