title: Mimiviruses: Replication, Purification, and Quantification.
abstract: The aim of this protocol is to describe the replication, purification, and titration of mimiviruses. These viruses belong to the Mimiviridae family, the first member of which was isolated in 1992 from a cooling tower water sample collected during an outbreak of pneumonia in a hospital in Bradford, England. In recent years, several new mimiviruses have been isolated from different environmental conditions. These giant viruses are easily replicated in amoeba of the Acanthamoeba genus, its natural host. Mimiviruses present peculiar features that make them unique viruses, such as the particle and genome size and the genome's complexity. The discovery of these viruses rekindled discussions about their origin and evolution, and the genetic and structural complexity opened up a new field of study. Here, we describe some methods utilized for mimiviruses replication, purification, and titration. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-Minas Gerais, Brazil.|These authors contributed equally to this work.
authors.forename: Jônatas Santos
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Abrahão
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-Minas Gerais, Brazil.|These authors contributed equally to this work.
authors.forename: Graziele Pereira
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lorena Christine
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Ferreira da Silva
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ludmila Karen
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Dos Santos Silva
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Microbiologia, Laboratório de Vírus, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-Minas Gerais, Brazil.
authors.forename: Erna Geessien
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Kroon
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes (URMITE), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: La Scola
mesh_terms: D000048:Acanthamoeba / Q000821:virology; D002499:Centrifugation, Density Gradient / Q000379:methods*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D056686:Mimiviridae / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D014776:Virus Cultivation / Q000379:methods*; D014779:Virus Replication
keywords: mimiviruses; purification; replication; titration