The TWiV team discusses Medusavirus, isolated from a hot spring in Japan, and induction of hallmarks of neurodegeneration by recurrent herpes simplex virus 1 infection of mice.

Team TWiV cover the discovery of another giant virus from 30,000 year old Siberian permafrost, and how viral aggregation accelerates the production of new infectious viruses and increases fitness, demonstrating an Allee effect.

The TWiVniks explain how the three-dimensional structure of the giant Cafeteria roenbergensis virus suggests a new mode of assembly, and the apparent elimination of dengue fever in an Australian city by release of mosquitoes harboring Wolbachia.

No problem not being nice to Dickson in this episode, because he’s absent for a discussion of a new giant virus that replicates in the cytoplasm yet transiently accesses the nucleus to bootstrap infection.

The esteemed doctors of TWiV review a new giant virus recovered from the Siberian permafrost, why influenza virus gain of function experiments are valuable, and feline immunodeficiency virus.