largest known virus as of 03/14

Range Length ~1500 Diameter 500 nm
Organism Pithovirus sibericum
Reference Legendre, M. et al., (2014). Thirty-thousand-year-old distant relative of giant icosahedral DNA viruses with a pandoravirus morphology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(11), 4274–9. doi:10.1073/pnas.1320670111 page 4275 bottom of left columnPubMed ID24591590
Comments "This sample was aseptically collected from a permafrost layer corresponding to late Pleistocene sediments older than 30,000 y (13). Similar paleosoils are known to contain cysts of Acanthamoeba cells (16). After amplification, the particles were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy confirming that Pithovirus shared the overall morphology of the Pandoraviruses (9) with slightly larger dimensions (~1.5µm in length, 500 nm in diameter). The virions exhibit a 60 nm-thick structured envelope made of one layer of parallel stripes (Fig. 1)"
Entered by Elad Herz
ID 111143