mamavirus

See also: Mamavirus

English

Etymology

Alteration of mimivirus by analogy with pairs such as mini–maxi and micro–macro. Coined by La Scola et al in 2008.[1]

Noun

mamavirus (plural mamaviruses)

  1. Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, a member of family Mimiviridae, larger than any previously identified virus.

References
  1. Bernard La Scola et al. (2008) “The virophage as a unique parasite of the giant mimivirus”, in Nature, volume 45, pages 100-104: “We isolated a new strain of APMV [Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus], by inoculating A. polyphaga with water from a cooling tower, in Paris. We denoted this new strain mamavirus because it seemed to be even larger than mimivirus when observed by transmission electron microscopy.”
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