(Press-News.org) Radically different viruses share genes and are likely to share ancestry, according to research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Virology Journal this week. The comprehensive phylogenomic analysis compares giant viruses that infect amoeba with tiny viruses known as virophages and to several groups of transposable elements. The complex network of evolutionary relationships the authors describe suggests that viruses evolved from non-viral mobile genetic elements and vice versa, on more than one occasion.
The recent discovery of virophages inside the giant viruses, which in turn infect amoeba, has led to speculation about their origin and their relationship to other viruses and small transposable genetic elements. To try to answer this question a research team including Eugene Koonin from the NIH and Didier Raoult from URMITE compared the genetic material from virophages, such as the Mavirus, Sputnik, or OLV (which was isolated from an Antarctic organic lake), to eukaryotic self replicating transposable elements known as Polintons or Mavericks.
Eugene Koonin explains: "Between the known virophages there are six conserved genes, arranged in a similar way. Five of these have counterparts in the Polintons, but their sequence and arrangement are sufficiently different to discount suggestions that Polintons evolved directly from a Maviruse-like ancestor. Rather our data suggests that Maviruses have evolved from a fusion between a Politon/Maverick-like transposable element and an unknown virus."
Including information about other viruses and virus-like elements: adenoviruses that infect animals and are one of the causes of the common cold; certain bacteriophages that infect bacteria; transpovirons which infect giant viruses; and a Tetrahymena transposable element (Tlr1), the virus "evolutionary tree" appears as a network of swapped genes.
Didier Raoult, whose team discovered the transpovirons, says: "It appears that viruses have evolved from non-viral genetic elements and vice versa on more than one occasion. Viral evolution is more complex than we thought."
###
Media Contact
Ruth Francis
Head of Communications, BioMed Central
Notes to Editors
1. Virophages, polintons, and transpovirons: a complex evolutionary network of diverse selfish genetic elements with different reproduction strategies
Natalya Yutin, Didier Raoult and Eugene V Koonin
Virology Journal 2013, 10:158 doi:10.1186/1743-422X-10-158
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
2. Virology Journal is an open access, peer reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of virology, including research on the viruses of animals, plants and microbes. The journal welcomes basic research as well as pre-clinical and clinical studies of novel diagnostic tools, vaccines and anti-viral therapies. @Virologyj
3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral
What the smallest infectious agents reveal about evolution
2013-05-23
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Researchers complete largest genetic sequencing study of human disease
2013-05-23
Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London have led the largest sequencing study of human disease to date, investigating the genetic basis of six autoimmune diseases.
The exact cause of these diseases – autoimmune thyroid disease, coeliac disease, Crohn's disease, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes– is unknown, but is believed to be a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors. In each disease only aproportion of the heritability is explained by the identifiedgenetic variants. The techniques used to date, have generally identified common ...
The Norway spruce genome sequenced
2013-05-23
Swedish scientists have mapped the gene sequence of Norway spruce (the Christmas tree) – a species with huge economic and ecological importance - and that is the largest genome to have ever been mapped. The genome is complex and seven times larger than that of humans. The results have been published in the prestigious journal Nature.
This major research project has been led by Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) in Umeå and the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) in Stockholm.
In addition to its scientific interest this new knowledge has immense importance to the ...
Researchers reveal model of Sun's magnetic field
2013-05-23
Researchers at the Universities of Leeds and Chicago have uncovered an important mechanism behind the generation of astrophysical magnetic fields such as that of the Sun.
Scientists have known since the 18th Century that the Sun regularly oscillates between periods of high and low solar activity in an 11-year cycle, but have been unable to fully explain how this cycle is generated.
In the 'Information Age', it has become increasingly important to be able to understand the Sun's magnetic activity, as it is the changes in its magnetic field that are responsible for ...
Fragile mega-galaxy is missing link in history of cosmos
2013-05-23
Irvine, Calif. – Two hungry young galaxies that collided 11 billion years ago are rapidly forming a massive galaxy about 10 times the size of the Milky Way, according to UC Irvine-led research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Capturing the creation of this type of large, short-lived star body is extremely rare – the equivalent of discovering a missing link between winged dinosaurs and early birds, said the scientists, who relied on the once-powerful Herschel space telescope and observatories around the world. The new mega-galaxy, dubbed HXMM01, "is the brightest, ...
Pinpointing how nature's benefits link to human well-being
2013-05-23
What people take from nature – water, food, timber, inspiration, relaxation – are so abundant, it seems self-evident. Until you try to quantitatively understand how and to what extent they contribute to humans.
In today's world, where competition for and degradation of natural resources increases globally, it becomes ever more crucial to quantify the value of ecosystem services – the precise term that defines nature's benefits, and even more important to link how different types of ecosystem services affect various components of human well-being.
Scientists at Michigan ...
The tropical upper atmosphere 'fingerprint' of global warming
2013-05-23
In the tropics at heights more than 10 miles above the surface, the prevailing winds alternate between strong easterlies and strong westerlies roughly every other year. This slow heartbeat in the tropical upper atmosphere, referred to as the quasibiennial oscillation (QBO), impacts the winds and chemical composition of the global atmosphere and even the climate at Earth's surface.
The pulse of the QBO has weakened substantially at some altitudes over the last six decades, according to a new study by scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University ...
Scientists develop worm EEG to test the effects of drugs
2013-05-23
Scientists from the University of Southampton have developed a device which records the brain activity of worms to help test the effects of drugs.
NeuroChip is a microfluidic electrophysiological device, which can trap the microscopic worm Caenorhadbitis elegans and record the activity of discrete neural circuits in its 'brain' - a worm equivalent of the EEG.
C. elegans have been enormously important in providing insight into fundamental signalling processes in the nervous system and this device opens the way for a new analysis. Prior to this development, electrophysiological ...
Detecting mirror molecules
2013-05-23
Harvard physicists have developed a novel technique that can detect molecular variants in chemical mixtures – greatly simplifying a process that is one of the most important, though time-consuming, processes in analytical chemistry.
As described in a paper in Nature, post-doctoral researcher David Patterson, Professor of Physics John Doyle and Dr. Melanie Schnell of the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg, Germany developed a system that relies on finely-tuned microwave fields to identify molecular variants apart, and to determine how much variant ...
Small, speedy plant-eater extends knowledge of dinosaur ecosystems
2013-05-23
Dinosaurs are often thought of as large, fierce animals, but new research highlights a previously overlooked diversity of small dinosaurs. In the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, a team of paleontologists from the University of Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, Cleveland Museum of Natural History and University of Calgary have described a new dinosaur, the smallest plant-eating dinosaur species known from Canada. Albertadromeus syntarsus was identified from a partial hind leg, and other skeletal elements, that indicate it was a speedy runner. Approximately 1.6 m (5 ft) ...
More emphasis needed on recycling and reuse of Li-ion batteries
2013-05-23
The discovery of potential environmental and human health effects from disposal of millions of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries each year has led scientists to recommend stronger government policies to encourage recovery, recycling and reuse of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery materials. That's the conclusion of a new paper in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Oladele A. Ogunseitan and colleagues point out that Li-ion batteries have become mainstays for powering everything from smart phones to components in new jetliners, with global sales approaching ...