Elizabeth PennisiIn 2003, scientists discovered something huge, literally, in the virus world: viruses so big they could be seen with a standard microscope.
These massive parasites were considered rare at the time, but they’ve since proved more common than anyone expected. Now, researchers have found entire giant virus genomes embedded in the genomes of several common algae.
The find suggests this strange viral group is even more prolific—and potentially influential—than scientists thought.“The sheer amount of DNA and the diversity of genes contributed by these viruses to their hosts is staggering,” says Cedric Feschotte, a genome biologist at Cornell University who was not involved with the work.