page_title: Sputnik virophage
hierarchical_section_title: Sputnik virophage
caption_attribution_description: English: Mimivirus, Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus, with two satellite Sputnik virophages (arrows) Thin-section electron microscopy courtesy of J.Y. Bou Khalil and B. La Scola, IHU Mediterranée Infection, France.
context_page_description: Mimivirus-dependent virus Sputnik is a subviral agent that reproduces in amoeba cells that are already infected by a certain helper virus; Sputnik uses the helper virus's machinery for reproduction and inhibits replication of the helper virus. It is known as a virophage, in analogy to the term bacteriophage.
  Viruses like Sputnik that depend on co-infection of the host cell by helper viruses are known as satellite viruses. At its discovery in a Paris water-cooling tower in 2008 Sputnik was the first known satellite virus that inhibited replication of its helper virus and thus acted as a parasite of that virus. In analogy it was called a virophage.
  Sputnik virophages were found infecting giant viruses of Mimiviridae group A. However, they are able to grow in amoebae infected by Mimiviridae of any of the groups A, B, and C.
context_section_description: Mimivirus-dependent virus Sputnik  (from Russian cпутник "satellite") is a subviral agent that reproduces in amoeba cells that are already infected by a certain helper virus; Sputnik uses the helper virus's machinery for reproduction and inhibits replication of the helper virus. It is known as a virophage, in analogy to the term bacteriophage.
  Viruses like Sputnik that depend on co-infection of the host cell by helper viruses are known as satellite viruses. At its discovery in a Paris water-cooling tower in 2008 Sputnik was the first known satellite virus that inhibited replication of its helper virus and thus acted as a parasite of that virus. In analogy  it was called a virophage.
  Sputnik virophages were found infecting giant viruses of Mimiviridae group A. However, they are able to grow in amoebae infected by Mimiviridae of any of the groups A, B, and C.
caption: A mimivirus with two satellite Sputnik virophages (arrows) [1]
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