Mimivirus

Mimivirus is a genus of giant viruses, in the family Mimiviridae. It is believed that Amoeba serve as their natural hosts. It also refers to a group of phylogenetically related large viruses.

In colloquial speech, APMV is more commonly referred to as just "mimivirus". Mimivirus, short for "mimicking microbe", is so called to reflect its large size and apparent Gram-staining properties.

Mimivirus has a large and complex genome compared with most other viruses. Until 2013, when a larger virus Pandoravirus was described, it had the largest capsid diameter of all known viruses.