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The University of Swansea has played a key role in transatlantic research to better understand megaviruses and their potential to cause life-threatening diseases.
The results, which have just been published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), examines the unexpected genes carried by these giant viruses found in amoebae.
Professor David Lamb, recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, collaborated with his colleagues, Professor Steven Kelly, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Swansea, Drs. Claire Price and Andrew Warrilow on the Appearance of cytochrome P450 in viruses.
Professor Lamb explained that amoebae can be described as Trojan horses since they carry megaviruses, which can be as big as a bacterium.
He said: "Some of these megaviruses have several thousand genes, we catalog them and examine their properties.
"We know that these viruses can be linked to some forms of pneumonia, so understanding them better will help us develop ways to fight these viruses."
The document follows Professor Lamb's stay in the United States as one of the very first Fulbright Fellows of Swansea University.
He was invited by the Department of Oceans and Human Health of the world-famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Mbadachusetts, where he spent a year developing his research on cytochrome P450 biodiversity.
The journal also saw Swansea scholars collaborating with Dr. Jed Goldstone and Professor John Stegeman of Woods Hole, Alec Follmer, True Marie and Professor Tom Poulos of the University of California at Irvine and Professor David Nelson of University of Tennessee.
Professor Lamb added:
This research is very interesting and our results herald a new era of understanding regarding the evolution of this important gene family, with implications for understanding the biology and origin of the giant viruses themselves. "
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