page_title: Cafeteria roenbergensis virus
section_title: Viral replication
hierarchical_section_title: Cafeteria roenbergensis virus / Viral replication
caption_attribution_description: English: VF is the “virus factory,” where replication of CroV occurs. The white arrowhead indicates newly formed CroV particles. The white long-stem arrows indicate mavirus, a virophage that infects CroV.
context_page_description: Cafeteria roenbergensis virus is a giant virus that infects the marine bicosoecid flagellate Cafeteria roenbergensis, a member of the microzooplankton community.
context_section_description: Viral reproduction occurs in large constructs known as large cytoplasmic factories or viral factories. This is the site where DNA replication, transcription, and particle assembly are thought to take place. These factories are also the primary targets of the virophage Mavirus, which utilizes CroV machinery to replicate. Mavirus is a 19,000 kb circular double stranded DNA virus. Maviral infection reduces host cell death by interfering with CroV infection and replication. Mavirus integrates into the genome of cells of Cafeteria roenbergensis, and thereby confers immunity to the population.
  CroV enters cells via phagocytosis. Once inside the cell, the CroV capsid disassembles and the viral proteins and genome are released. CroV does not use the transcription or translation machinery of the host cell. It remains in the cytoplasm, where a “virus factory” forms and replicates independent of the host cell nucleus. The CroV genome is not integrated into the host cell genome. CroV encodes eight subunits of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase and it also encodes at least six transcription factors, which allows the DNA genome to be transcribed into mRNA without the use of the cell’s proteins. CroV can then translate the mRNAs into proteins with help of the cell's translation machine and by using its own tRNA synthetase, tRNA, and translation initiation factors to fine-tune the translation to its own advantage.
caption: VF is the “virus factory,” where replication of CroV occurs. The white arrowhead indicates newly formed CroV particles. The white long-stem arrows indicate mavirus, a virophage that infects CroV.
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