They dubbed the newfound microbes ‘mirusviruses’, ‘mirus’ meaning ‘strange’ in Latin.
The researchers concluded that mirusviruses belong to a large group of viruses called Duplodnaviria, which includes the herpesviruses that infect animals and humans, based on shared genes that encode the shell, or particle enclosing their DNA. But the strange newfound viruses also share a staggering number of genes with a group of giant viruses, called Varidnaviria.
This story is from the Issue 178 edition of How It Works UK.
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This story is from the Issue 178 edition of How It Works UK.
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