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OVERLAPPING GENES. "The virus world concept blurs the distinction between monophyletic and polyphyletic origins of virus classes and implies a "third path". The major classes of viruses do not have a common origin in the traditional sense but neither are they unrelated, being connected through overlapping arrays of common genes, some of which are hallmarks of the Virus World." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

VIRAL EXPANSION. "The cataclysmic events of eukaryogenesis appear to have precipitated the birth of a new domain of the virus world. Of course, our models of the virus world evolution depend on the adopted scenario for evolution of cells; to wit, a "eukaryotes first" scenario would call for a very different perspective on viral evolution as well." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

CLOSELY LINKED. "We must, once again, stress the importance of the links between viral and cellular evolution and the coherence of the emerging scenarios." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

GENE SWAPS. "The birth of the eukaryotic virus realm can be envisaged as a turbulent process of mixing and matching of genes from several different sources, the most important one being, probably, the gene pool of prokaryotic viruses, in the melting pot of the emergent eukaryotic cell." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

DIFFERENT HOST HABITATS. "The representation of different genome strategies are dramatically different between prokaryotic and eukaryotic viruses, the foremost distinction being the higher prevalence of DNA viruses in prokaryotes contrasted by the preponderance of RNA viruses in eukaryotes." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

CAVEAT: "the available bacteriophage genomes account for but a tiny slice of the enormous phage diversity, so it is impossible to rule out that direct progenitors of the main groups of eukaryotic viruses are lurking in the unexplored parts of the phage domain." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

DRASTIC GENOME REMODELING. "These lines of viral gene evolution form multiple intersections in the melting pot of eukaryogenesis: the path between the two domains was not smooth but rather involved drastic remolding of the viral genomes." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

UBIQUITOUS INFECTIONS. "A rough calculation reveals that there are many billions of chronic virus infections in humans, with each of the ∼6.75 billion of us harboring ∼8–12 chronic infections. Some of these viruses are so common that one would be hard put to find uninfected control patients for studies to identify viral associations with disease or effects on the “normal” immune system." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867409007831 View in LinkedIn

EUK GENOME ORIGINS. "The pivotal contribution of prokaryotic viruses to the origin of eukaryotic viral genomes appears to be as strongly supported by the conservation of the hallmark genes across most of the virus world as the original emergence of viruses from the primordial gene pool." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

DÉTENTE. "New evidence in animals indicates that chronic virus infection can fundamentally alter innate immunity to nonviral pathogens. IFN-γ expression during herpesvirus latency can symbiotically protect the host from infection by the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes and Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague. Thus, the détente developed between herpesviruses and their hosts over tens of millions of years of coevolution may offer benefits to the host." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867409007831 View in LinkedIn