Organic Lake virophage


Organic Lake virophage is a double-stranded DNA virophage. It was detected metagenomically in samples from Organic Lake, Antarctica.

Virology

The virus appears to be ~100 nanometers in diameter and to be enveloped.
It preys on Organic Lake phycodnaviruses, which in fact may rather belong to Mimiviridae than to Phycodnaviridae.
The genome is double-stranded DNA and is 26,421 base pairs in length.
It encodes 38 proteins. These include the major coat protein, a DNA packaging ATPase, a putative DNA polymerase/primase and a N6 adenine specific DNA methyltransferase.