First evidence of host range expansion in virophages and its potential impact on giant viruses and host cells

Said Mougari; Nisrine Chelkha; Dehia Sahmi-Bounsiar; Fabrizio Di Pinto; Philippe Colson; Jonatas Abrahao; Bernard La Scola

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/780841 doi: bioRxiv preprint 5h). We scanned more than two hundred cells and quantified the number of amoebas, in which both virophage and giant virus progeny were observed ( Fig. 5c-5d ). Our results confirmed the absence of any simultaneous occurrence of Guarani and Tupanvirus virion production in all coinfected cells. The presence of the virophage was automatically associated with the absence of Tupanvirus virions ( Fig. 5e-5h ). To characterize this phenomenon, we observed virus factories infected with the mutant virophage at serial stages of coinfection ( Fig. 6 ). Figure 6a shows that at 16 h p.i., the virus was able to produce mature virus factories, even in the presence of virophage. The first virophage progeny was observed at this step.