Isolation and Quantification of Mimivirus-Like and Marseillevirus-Like Viruses from Soil Samples in An Aboriginal (Orang asli) Village in Peninsular Malaysia

BACKGROUND: The giant amoebal viruses of Mimivirus and Marseillevirus are large DNA viruses and have been documented in water, soil, and sewage samples. The trend of discovering these giant amoebal viruses has been increasing throughout Asia with Japan, India, and Saudi Arabia being the latest countries to document the presence of these viruses. To date, there have been no reports of large amoebal viruses being isolated in South East Asia.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aim to discover these viruses from soil samples in an aboriginal village (Serendah village) in Peninsular -Malaysia.

METHOD AND RESULTS: We successfully detected and isolated both Mimivirus-like and Marseillevirus-like viruses using Acanthamoeba castellanii. Phylogeny analysis identified them as Mimivirus and Marseillevirus, respectively.

CONCLUSION: The ubiquitous nature of both Mimivirus and Marseillevirus is further confirmed in our study as they are detected in higher quantity in soil that is near to water vicinities in an aboriginal village in Peninsular Malaysia. However, this study is limited by our inability to investigate the impact of Mimivirus and Marseillevirus on the aboriginal villagers. More studies on the potential impact of these viruses on human health, especially on the aborigines, are warranted.