Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The origin and evolution of viruses inferred from fold family structure

Journal Article · · Archives of Virology
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); COMSATS Univ. Islamabad (Pakistan)
The canonical frameworks of viral evolution describe viruses as cellular predecessors, reduced forms of cells, or entities that escaped cellular control. The discovery of giant viruses has changed these standard paradigms. Their genetic, proteomic and structural complexities resemble those of cells, prompting a redefinition and reclassification of viruses. In a previous genome-wide analysis of the evolution of structural domains in proteomes, with domains defined at the fold superfamily level, we found the origins of viruses intertwined with those of ancient cells. In this review, we extend these data-driven analyses to the study of fold families confirming the co-evolution of viruses and ancient cells and the genetic ability of viruses to foster molecular innovation. The results support our suggestion that viruses arose by genomic reduction from ancient cells and validate a co-evolutionary ‘symbiogenic’ model of viral origins.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDA; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
Other Award/Contract Number:
20180751PRD3
OISE-1132791
ILLU-802-909
ILLU-483-625
OSTI ID:
1680022
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-20-23821
Journal Information:
Archives of Virology, Journal Name: Archives of Virology Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 165; ISSN 0304-8608
Publisher:
Springer NatureCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (78)

Long-term evolution of viruses: A Janus-faced balance journal June 2017
Archaea-First and the Co-Evolutionary Diversification of Domains of Life journal June 2018
The virus as metabolic engineer journal July 2010
A Tree of Cellular Life Inferred from a Genomic Census of Molecular Functions journal August 2014
Testing Empirical Support for Evolutionary Models that Root the Tree of Life journal March 2019
A new theory on the origin and the nature of viruses journal December 1983
The two ages of the RNA world, and the transition to the DNA world: a story of viruses and cells journal September 2005
Akaryotes and Eukaryotes are independent descendants of a universal common ancestor journal July 2017
Co-option of endogenous viral sequences for host cell function journal August 2017
The tree of life might be rooted in the branch leading to Nanoarchaeota journal October 2007
Polyphasic evidence delineating the root of life and roots of biological domains journal November 2007
COVID-19 infection: Origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses journal July 2020
Viruses as living processes journal October 2016
To be or not to be alive: How recent discoveries challenge the traditional definitions of viruses and life journal October 2016
Giant viruses: The difficult breaking of multiple epistemological barriers
  • Claverie, Jean-Michel; Abergel, Chantal
  • Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Vol. 59 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.02.015
journal October 2016
Are viruses alive? The replicator paradigm sheds decisive light on an old but misguided question
  • Koonin, Eugene V.; Starokadomskyy, Petro
  • Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Vol. 59 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.02.016
journal October 2016
Protein Domain Structure Uncovers the Origin of Aerobic Metabolism and the Rise of Planetary Oxygen journal January 2012
Lokiarchaeota: eukaryote-like missing links from microbial dark matter? journal August 2015
Origins and evolution of viruses of eukaryotes: The ultimate modularity journal May 2015
Complex archaea that bridge the gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes journal May 2015
Asgard archaea illuminate the origin of eukaryotic cellular complexity journal January 2017
Mimivirus: leading the way in the discovery of giant viruses of amoebae journal February 2017
The enigmatic archaeal virosphere journal November 2017
Marine viruses — major players in the global ecosystem journal October 2007
Ten reasons to exclude viruses from the tree of life journal March 2009
Diversity and evolution of the emerging Pandoraviridae family journal June 2018
Hidden diversity of soil giant viruses journal November 2018
Origin of viruses: primordial replicators recruiting capsids from hosts journal May 2019
The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 journal March 2020
Whole-proteome phylogeny of prokaryotes by feature frequency profiles: An alignment-free method with optimal feature resolution journal December 2009
Multiple origins of viral capsid proteins from cellular ancestors journal March 2017
Diversification of giant and large eukaryotic dsDNA viruses predated the origin of modern eukaryotes journal September 2019
Yaravirus: A novel 80-nm virus infecting Acanthamoeba castellanii journal June 2020
Eocytes: a new ribosome structure indicates a kingdom with a close relationship to eukaryotes. journal June 1984
Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. journal June 1990
SDADB: a functional annotation database of protein structural domains journal January 2018
Bacterial Origin and Reductive Evolution of the CPR Group journal February 2020
Microbial Dark Matter Investigations: How Microbial Studies Transform Biological Knowledge and Empirically Sketch a Logic of Scientific Discovery journal February 2018
A Universal Molecular Clock of Protein Folds and Its Power in Tracing the Early History of Aerobic Metabolism and Planet Oxygenation journal August 2010
SCOP: a Structural Classification of Proteins database journal January 2000
Reference sequence (RefSeq) database at NCBI: current status, taxonomic expansion, and functional annotation journal November 2015
Reductive evolution of architectural repertoires in proteomes and the birth of the tripartite world journal November 2007
Vesiduction: the fourth way of HGT journal June 2020
Untangling the origin of viruses and their impact on cellular evolution: Origin and evolution of viruses journal March 2015
A phylogenomic data-driven exploration of viral origins and evolution journal September 2015
A Giant Virus in Amoebae journal March 2003
Genomics and the Irreducible Nature of Eukaryote Cells journal May 2006
Pandoraviruses: Amoeba Viruses with Genomes Up to 2.5 Mb Reaching That of Parasitic Eukaryotes journal July 2013
Microvesicles and Viral Infection journal October 2011
Can Sequence Phylogenies Safely Infer the Origin of the Global Virome? journal April 2019
Virus Genomes from Deep Sea Sediments Expand the Ocean Megavirome and Support Independent Origins of Viral Gigantism journal March 2019
Virus World as an Evolutionary Network of Viruses and Capsidless Selfish Elements journal May 2014
Viruses: unlocking the greatest biodiversity on Earth journal October 2013
Structure Unifies the Viral Universe journal July 2012
The Common Ancestor of Archaea and Eukarya Was Not an Archaeon journal January 2013
Arguments Reinforcing the Three-Domain View of Diversified Cellular Life journal January 2016
The Coevolutionary Roots of Biochemistry and Cellular Organization Challenge the RNA World Paradigm journal January 2013
Rooting Phylogenies and the Tree of Life While Minimizing Ad Hoc and Auxiliary Assumptions journal January 2018
The evolutionary history of protein fold families and proteomes confirms that the archaeal ancestor is more ancient than the ancestors of other superkingdoms journal January 2012
Giant viruses coexisted with the cellular ancestors and represent a distinct supergroup along with superkingdoms Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya journal January 2012
Giant viruses, giant chimeras: The multiple evolutionary histories of Mimivirus genes journal January 2008
Ubiquitous giants: a plethora of giant viruses found in Brazil and Antarctica journal January 2018
Origin and Evolution of Protein Fold Designs Inferred from Phylogenomic Analysis of CATH Domain Structures in Proteomes journal March 2013
Asgard archaea do not close the debate about the universal tree of life topology journal March 2018
Phylogenetic and Phyletic Studies of Informational Genes in Genomes Highlight Existence of a 4th Domain of Life Including Giant Viruses journal December 2010
The Giant Cafeteria roenbergensis Virus That Infects a Widespread Marine Phagocytic Protist Is a New Member of the Fourth Domain of Life journal April 2011
The distribution and impact of viral lineages in domains of life journal April 2014
Identification of Capsid/Coat Related Protein Folds and Their Utility for Virus Classification journal March 2017
Phylogenetic Tracings of Proteome Size Support the Gradual Accretion of Protein Structural Domains and the Early Origin of Viruses from Primordial Cells journal June 2017
Do Viruses Exchange Genes across Superkingdoms of Life? journal October 2017
Archaeal S-Layers: Overview and Current State of the Art journal December 2017
Ancestrality and Mosaicism of Giant Viruses Supporting the Definition of the Fourth TRUC of Microbes journal November 2018
Pandoravirus Celtis Illustrates the Microevolution Processes at Work in the Giant Pandoraviridae Genomes journal March 2019
Annotation of Protein Domains Reveals Remarkable Conservation in the Functional Make up of Proteomes Across Superkingdoms journal November 2011
Giant Viruses—Big Surprises journal April 2019
Genomics of Megavirus and the elusive fourth domain of Life journal January 2012
Viral evolution: Primordial cellular origins and late adaptation to parasitism journal September 2012
Ubiquitous giants: a plethora of giant viruses found in Brazil and Antarctica collection January 2018

Similar Records

Kaposi’s sarcoma–associated herpesvirus stably clusters its genomes across generations to maintain itself extrachromosomally
Journal Article · Mon Jul 10 00:00:00 UTC 2017 · Journal of Cell Biology · OSTI ID:1368608

The protein structurome of Orthornavirae and its dark matter
Journal Article · Mon Dec 23 00:00:00 UTC 2024 · mBio (Online) · OSTI ID:2530328

Related Subjects