User:Spacepotato/Giant virus definitions

"Giant virus in the sea: Extending the realm of Megaviridae to Viridiplantae", Communicative & Integrative Biology 6:6, e25685; November/December 2013, Jean-Michel Claverie, : “Giant viruses” [1] were initially defined on the basis of their particle (virion) size— more than 0.5 μm in diameter—(making them observable under a light microscope) incorporating a DNA genome more than a million base pairs (Mb) in length, encoding about 1000 proteins (hence the proposed name “Megaviridae” for their family)

Katzourakis A and Aswad A BMC Biology 2014, 12:51 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/12/51

American Scientist, "Giant Viruses", James L. Van Etten, July–August 2011: Volume 99, Number 4, : " Giant viruses are considered to be ones with genomes larger than 300 kilobase pairs and with capsid diameters of about 200 nanometers or more. "

http://arxiv.org/pdf/q-bio/0506007.pdf "The evolutionary forces at the origin of giant viruses (loosely defined as those packing morethan 300 genes in 200-300 nm-diameter particles)"

Genomics of Megavirus and the elusive fourth domain of Life, Matthieu Legendre, Defne Arslan, Chantal Abergel, and Jean-Michel Claverie, : "The main common features of Giruses are their large pseudo-icosahedral capsids (with diameter > 400 nm), most often enclosed in a thick (≈100 nm) layer of fibers, a large double-stranded DNA genome (≈a million bp) and a large gene content (approximately 1000 genes)."

http://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Dunigan/publication/45535468_DNA_viruses_the_really_big_ones_%28giruses%29/links/0c9605245989ebf1d3000000.pdf Annu Rev Microbiol. 2010 October 13; 64: 83–99. doi:10.1146/annurev.micro.112408.134338 DNA Viruses: The Really Big Ones (Giruses) James L. Van Etten, Leslie C. Lane, and David D. Dunigan Abstract: "Viruses with genomes greater than 300 kb and up to 1200 kb are being discovered with increasing frequency. These large viruses (often called giruses) can encode up to 900 proteins and also many tRNAs. "