title: Growing a giant: evaluation of the virological parameters for mimivirus production.
abstract: Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (APMV) was described in 2003, and due to its unique structural and genetic complexity, the viral family Mimiviridae was created. APMV prompted the creation of an open field of study on the function of hundreds of never-before-seen open reading frames (ORFs) and their roles in virus-host interactions. In recent years, several giant viruses have been isolated from different environments and specimens. Although the scientific community has experienced a remarkable advancement in the comprehension of the mimivirus replication cycle in the last years, few studies have been devoted to the investigation of the methodological features and conditions for mimivirus cultivation. In this work, conditions for the cultivation of mimivirus isolates were investigated to obtain relevant information about the production of infectious particles, total viral particles and viral DNA. The results suggest that low viral doses are more efficient for the production of infectious particles, yielding up to 5000 TCID50 for each inoculated TCID50. Besides methodological information, these data also reveal, for the first time, the ratio between total and infectious particles (in TCID50) that are produced during mimivirus cultivation in laboratory conditions. All of this information can be used as a worldwide guide for the production of mimiviruses and can help prompt mimivirological studies in different fields.
authors: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes (URMITE), UM63 CNRS 7278 IRD 198 INSERM U1095, Faculté de Médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France. Electronic address: jonatas.abrahao@gmail.com.
authors: Jônatas S
authors: JS
authors: Abrahão
authors: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors: Paulo
authors: P
authors: Boratto
authors: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors: Fábio P
authors: FP
authors: Dornas
authors: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors: Lorena C
authors: LC
authors: Silva
authors: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors: Rafael K
authors: RK
authors: Campos
authors: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors: Gabriel M F
authors: GM
authors: Almeida
authors: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors: Erna G
authors: EG
authors: Kroon
authors: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes (URMITE), UM63 CNRS 7278 IRD 198 INSERM U1095, Faculté de Médecine, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors: Bernard
authors: B
authors: La Scola
mesh_terms: D000656:Amoeba / Q000821:virology*; D056686:Mimiviridae / Q000254:growth & development*; D014776:Virus Cultivation / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Amoebae; Mimivirus; Total particles, Viral genome, giant virus; Virus production