IFL Science
By Tom Leslie
May 27, 2026
Anewly discovered giant virus is helping researchers understand how one of biology’s most unusual groups diversified – and how even closely related viruses can diverge in their strategies for exploiting host cells.
The virus, named furtivovirus, was isolated from river samples in Kamakura, Japan, and cultured in the lab using a common soil amoeba. At around 200 nanometers across, it is among the smaller of the “giant viruses” – a group that can reach 10 times that size and whose first known member, Mimivirus, spent 11 years mistakenly categorized as a bacterium before it was recognized as a virus in 2003.
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