Viruses from extreme geothermal environments

　　报告人：David Prangishvili

　　报告人单位：法国巴斯德研究所

　　报告题目：Viruses from extreme geothermal environments

　　时间及地点：2015年10月20日(周二)上午10:00 ，A203会议室

　　主持人：黄力 研究员

　　报告人简介：

　　David Prangishvili，1970年毕业于第比利斯国立大学物理学/生物物理学专业，1976年于苏联科学院分子生物学研究所获得分子生物学博士学位。曾担任苏联科学院分子生物学研究所、格鲁吉亚科学院生理学研究所、德国马普学会生物化学研究所担任副研究员，格鲁吉亚科学院分子生物学与生物物理学研究所系主任，雷根斯堡大学研究室主任，现为法国巴斯德研究所副教授。1979年获列宁科学与技术奖，2011年当选格鲁吉亚科学院外籍院士。研究领域为极端地热环境中的生命、古菌及其病毒的多样性及分子生物学，主要擅长古菌病毒的分离鉴定、生物信息学分析和分子生物学研究，发表相关学术论文105 篇，撰写章节和评论45篇，出版书籍1本，获得国际专利2项。担任国际病毒分类委员会(The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses，ICTV)执行委员，Research in Microbiology副主编，Environmental Microbiology，Archaea等杂志编委。

　　报告内容摘要：

　　From extreme geothermal environments (temperatures above 80°C) in Europe, Asia and North America, Dr. Prangishvili’s laboratory has isolated and characterized more than two dozen different DNA viruses, assigned to 11 viral families, which infect hyperthermophilic members of Archaea, the third domain of life, next to the domains of Bacteria and Eukarya (for review, see Prangishvili, 2013. The Wonderful World of Achaeeal Viruses. Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 67: 565-585). The morphologies of these viruses are exceptionally diverse and include spindle-shaped, two-tailed, bottle-shaped, ovoid, coil-shaped, droplet-shaped and other forms which differ dramatically from those of DNA viruses from pother two domains of life, Bacteria and Eukarya. Moreover, genomes of hyperthermophilic archaeal viruses proved to be terra incognita with overwhelming majority of their genes without homologs in other viruses or cellular life forms. The distinctiveness of these viruses extends to the structures of the proteins they encode and the mechanisms underlying the interactions of these viruses with their hosts.

　　In his talk, Dr. Prangishvili will summarize the state of art of our studies on hyperthermophilic archeal viruses, and discuss the recent advances towards understanding molecular details of the life cycle of these viruses, their interactions with the host cell, as well as functions and structures of the virus-encoded proteins. In conclusion, he will outline what has been learned about the origin and evolution of viral world and virus-host interactions from the studies on viruses of Archaea and their comparisons with viruses of Bacteria and Eukarya.