Michael V. Graves

B.S., Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1986
Ph.D., Genetics, Oregon State University, 1992     

Research in my lab focuses on the chlorella viruses that infect chlorella-like algae. They are distributed worldwide and many genetically distinct isolates populate a single water sample. Their genome is unusually large. One isolate, PBCV-1, for example, (genome size = 330744 bp dsDNA) codes for ~375 proteins, nearly half of which resemble proteins of known function. The genomes of other chlorella virus isolates are probably co-linear with PBCV-1 and appear to share many, but not all, genes. This suggests that the entire "gene pool" of this genus exceeds the 375 PBCV-1-encoded genes. Many of these genes encode proteins (e.g. enzymes involved in protein glycosylation) rarely associated with viruses.