Enter the goliaths: infection by giant viruses

Most mature viruses exist in extremely high potential energy states, balanced between being poised for DNA delivery to a suitable host and being able to withstand harsh environmental extremes. Robust mechanisms must be employed to precisely target hosts, to withstand radical conformational changes during the transition from high to low energy states during infection, and to persist when hosts are not available. There is a paucity of structural and biophysical information regarding transient interactions during viral infections for the majority of virus families, and this is especially true for giant viruses (GVs).