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Pithovirus research
Pithovirus research. A researcher places a sample on microscope stage to observe the life cycle of Pithovirus sibericum, a species of giant virus which infects amoebas. The virus is the largest known, and was discovered in 2014 when a viable specimen was found in a 30,000-year-old ice core harvested from permafrost in Siberia, Russia. Its genome is one circular, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) chromosome. Pithovirus undergoes its entire replication cycle in its host's cytoplasm, rather than the more typical method of taking over the host's nucleus. Photographed at Aix-Marseille University, France.
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