Giant DNA viruses make big strides in eukaryote evolution

Shifeng Cheng; Gane Ka-Shu Wong; Michael Melkonian

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2021.01.008

Giant DNA viruses make big strides in eukaryote evolution

Cell Host Microbe. 2021 Feb 10;29(2):152-154. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2021.01.008.

Authors

Shifeng Cheng¹, Gane Ka-Shu Wong², Michael Melkonian³

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, 518120, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Medicine and Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alberta, Edmonton AB, T6G 2E1, Canada; BGI-Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Yantian District, Shenzhen 518083, China.
³ Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Integrative Bioinformatics, 50829 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 33571441
DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2021.01.008

Abstract

Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) are widespread in the biosphere. This issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Nelson et al., and a recent Nature paper, Moniruzzaman et al., show NCLDVs can integrate into host genomes, highlighting a mechanism of large-scale virus-mediated horizontal gene transfer (vHGT) driving eukaryotic evolution.

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MeSH terms

DNA Viruses / genetics
Eukaryota / genetics
Gene Transfer, Horizontal
Giant Viruses* / genetics
Microalgae*
Viruses* / genetics