Month: September 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TURBULENT EVOLUTION. "The continuity of the Virus World notwithstanding, during eukaryogenesis, one of the most remarkable, turbulent transitions in life's evolution, it has gone through a second melting pot that gave rise to the realm of eukaryotic viruses." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

VIRAL ROOTS. "In the Virus World, all viruses evolve from other viruses, even if via circuitous routes: Omnis virus e virus. Granted, this requires an important caveat: viruses do exist that seem to be disconnected form the rest of the virus world." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

DRIVERS OF EVOLUTION. "Viruses are among the key agents of evolution; virus-derived gene transfer agents (GTAs) are the specialized genetic devices that evolved to promote gene exchange." Nice visual overview of viruses. https://lnkd.in/dxWrbdm View in LinkedIn