Genome segregation and packaging machinery in Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus is reminiscent of bacterial apparatus.

ABSTRACT:

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Genome packaging is a critical step in the virion assembly process. The putative ATP-driven genome packaging motor of Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (APMV) and other nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) is a distant ortholog of prokaryotic chromosome segregation motors, such as FtsK and HerA, rather than other viral packaging motors, such as large terminase. Intriguingly, APMV also encodes other components, i.e., three putative serine recombinases and a putative type II topoisomerase, all of which are essential for chromosome segregation in prokaryotes. Based on our analyses of these components and taking the limited available literature into account, here we propose for the first time a model for genome segregation and packaging in APMV that can possibly be ex

SUBMITTER: Chelikani V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4093880 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature