University Hospital Institute Mediterranean Infection

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Immunology and Infection

A Rapid Strategy for the Isolation of New Faustoviruses from Environmental Samples Using Vermamoeba vermiformis

Jacques Yaacoub Bou Khalil¹, Julien Andreani¹, Didier Raoult^1,2, Bernard La Scola^1,2

¹Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Research Unit for Infectious and Tropical Emerging Diseases, Aix Marseille University, ²Pole of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Clinical and Biological Sector, Federation of Bacteriology-Hygiene Virology, University Hospital Institute Mediterranean Infection

We describe here the latest advances in viral isolation for the characterization of new genotypes of Faustovirus, a new asfarvirus-related lineage of giant viruses. This protocol can be applied to the high throughput isolation of viruses, especially giant viruses infecting amoeba.

Biology

Single Cell Micro-aspiration as an Alternative Strategy to Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorting for Giant Virus Mixture Separation

Dehia Sahmi-Bounsiar¹, Paulo Victor de Miranda Boratto², Graziele Pereira Oliveira², Jacques Yaacoub Bou Khalil¹, Bernard La Scola^1,2, Julien Andreani²

¹Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) - Méditerranée Infection, ²Microbes, Evolution, Phylogeny and Infection (MEΦI), Aix-Marseille Université UM63, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement IRD 198, Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP-HM)

Here, we describe a single cell micro-aspiration method for the separation of infected amoebae. In order to separate viral subpopulations in Vermamoeba vermiformis infected by Faustoviruses and unknown giant viruses, we developed the protocol detailed below and demonstrated its ability to separate two low-abundance novel giant viruses.