Trapping the Enemy: Vermamoeba vermiformis Circumvents Faustovirus Mariensis Dissemination by Enclosing Viral Progeny inside Cysts.

ABSTRACT: Viruses depend on cells to replicate and can cause considerable damage to their hosts. However, hosts have developed a plethora of antiviral mechanisms to counterattack or prevent viral replication and to maintain homeostasis. Advantageous features are constantly being selected, affecting host-virus interactions and constituting a harsh race for supremacy in nature. Here, we describe a new antiviral mechanism unveiled by the interaction between a giant virus and its amoebal host. Faustovirus mariensis infects Vermamoeba vermiformis, a free-living amoeba, and induces cell lysis to disseminate into the environment. Once infected, the cells release a soluble factor that triggers the encystment of neighbor cells, preventing their infection. Remarkably, infected cells stimulated by the factor e

SUBMITTER: Borges I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6600206 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature