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Review
. 2022 Jan 19;14(2):191.
doi: 10.3390/v14020191.

A Brief History of Giant Viruses' Studies in Brazilian Biomes

Paulo Victor M Boratto  1 , Mateus Sá M Serafim  1 , Amanda Stéphanie A Witt  1 , Ana Paula C Crispim  1 , Bruna Luiza de Azevedo  1 , Gabriel Augusto P de Souza  1 , Isabella Luiza M de Aquino  1 , Talita B Machado  1 , Victória F Queiroz  1 , Rodrigo A L Rodrigues  1 , Ivan Bergier  2 , Juliana Reis Cortines  3 , Savio Torres de Farias  4 , Raíssa Nunes Dos Santos  5 , Fabrício Souza Campos  5 , Ana Cláudia Franco  5 , Jônatas S Abrahão  1
Affiliations
Review

A Brief History of Giant Viruses' Studies in Brazilian Biomes

Paulo Victor M Boratto et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Almost two decades after the isolation of the first amoebal giant viruses, indubitably the discovery of these entities has deeply affected the current scientific knowledge on the virosphere. Much has been uncovered since then: viruses can now acknowledge complex genomes and huge particle sizes, integrating remarkable evolutionary relationships that date as early as the emergence of life on the planet. This year, a decade has passed since the first studies on giant viruses in the Brazilian territory, and since then biomes of rare beauty and biodiversity (Amazon, Atlantic forest, Pantanal wetlands, Cerrado savannas) have been explored in the search for giant viruses. From those unique biomes, novel viral entities were found, revealing never before seen genomes and virion structures. To celebrate this, here we bring together the context, inspirations, and the major contributions of independent Brazilian research groups to summarize the accumulated knowledge about the diversity and the exceptionality of some of the giant viruses found in Brazil.

Keywords: Brazilian isolates; NCLDV; amoebae viruses; giant virus; virosphere; virus diversity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location and numbers of giant viruses isolated in Brazil. (A) Schematic map showing the sites of isolation for the major groups of giant viruses discovered in Brazil. (B) Number of isolates discovered for each of these groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Panel with TEM images for the major groups of amoebal viruses isolated in Brazil. (A) mimivirus, (B) tupanvirus (source: 10.1038/s41598-018-36552-4), (C) marseillevirus, (D) pandoravirus, (E) cedratvirus, (F) faustovirus, and (G) yaravirus.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on amino acid sequences of DNA polymerase B family of Nucleocytoviricota. Brazilian isolates are bold and highlighted in blue. Sequences were aligned using Muscle [48] and low conserved regions were removed using trimAl [49]. The tree was built using IQ-TREE [50] with 1000 ultrafast bootstrap replicates and the VT+F+R7 model chosen by ModelTest according to Bayesian Information Criterion. The tree was visualized in iToL [51]. The tree scale indicates the substitution rate.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on amino acid sequences of major capsid protein of Nucleocytoviricota. Yaravirus brasiliensis is bold and highlighted in blue. Sequences were aligned using Muscle [48] and low conserved regions were removed using trimAl [49]. The tree was built using IQ-TREE [50] with 1000 ultrafast bootstrap replicates and the VT+R3 model chosen by ModelTest according to Bayesian Information Criterion. The tree was visualized in iToL [51]. The tree scale indicates the substitution rate.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Unique features of giant viruses’ (GVs’) replication cycles unraveled in Brazil. (A) faustovirus dissemination is circumvented by amoebas with the enclosing of viral progeny inside the host’s cysts [26]; (B) orpheovirus particles are released from the host by exocytosis or cell lysis [64]; (C) cedratvirus particles’ morphogenesis follows a unique and complex sequential organization, including horseshoe and rectangular compartments, the incorporation of the second cork and thickening of the capsid well, and finally the formation of the ovoid-shaped virion [24]; (D) amoebas infected with tupanvirus are induced to aggregate with uninfected cells, forming giant host cell bunches [78]; (E) mimiviruses are able to infect amoebal trophozoites and prevent encystment, while cysts are resistant to infection [81]; (F) MsV are able to form giant vesicles with numerous viral particles derived from amoebal endoplasmic reticulum [84]. Amoeba images were generated from free vectors available online at Vecteezy: https://www.vecteezy.com (accessed on 22 September 2021).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Optical microscopy images. (A) Source: Reference 91]. Visualization under 1000 times magnification of the stained purified particles of (B) tupanvirus, (C) cedratvirus and (D) Niemeyer virus, respectively.
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