title: The origins of giant viruses, virophages and their relatives in host genomes.
abstract: Giant viruses have revealed a number of surprises that challenge conventions on what constitutes a virus. The Samba virus newly isolated in Brazil expands the known distribution of giant mimiviruses to a near-global scale. These viruses, together with the transposon-related virophages that infect them, pose a number of questions about their evolutionary origins that need to be considered in the light of the complex entanglement between host, virus and virophage genomes.
authors.forename: Aris
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Katzourakis
authors.forename: Amr
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aswad
mesh_terms: D056686:Mimiviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010802:Phylogeny; D045483:Rivers / Q000821:virology*