Viva lavidaviruses! Five features of virophages that parasitize giant DNA viruses

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites and thus cannot replicate outside a living cell. Whereas a susceptible and permissive host cell is sufficient for most viruses to produce infectious progeny, some viruses such as satellite viruses require two different biological entities for their replication. In contrast to most satellite viruses with small RNA-based genomes, the lavidaviruses (or virophages) that replicate in eukaryotic microbes...