ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2012
Giant viruses coexisted with the cellular ancestors and represent a distinct supergroup along with superkingdoms Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 130 citations in OpenAlex.
- Why did some viruses evolve to be giants while others did not?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Reassessing viral origins and evolutionary placement in the tree of life.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- Phylogeny Building for Structural Phylogenomic Research.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Investigations into the Diversity and Distribution of tRNA and Phylogenetics of Translation Factors in Amoebozoa-InfectingViruses · 2025Article
- Evolution of intrinsic disorder in the structural domains of viral and cellular proteomes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
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- Are Viruses Taxonomic Units? A Protein Domain and Loop-Centric Phylogenomic Assessment.Viruses · 2024Review
- Omics of an Enigmatic Marine Amoeba Uncovers Unprecedented Gene Trafficking from Giant Viruses and Provides Insights into Its Complex Life Cycle.Microbiology research · 2023Article
- Minimizing the Anticodon-Recognized Loop ofBiomolecules · 2023Article
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- A critical analysis of the current state of virus taxonomy.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- MicroRNA-Mediated Regulation of the Virus Cycle and Pathogenesis in the SARS-CoV-2 Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Coevolutionary and Phylogenetic Analysis of Mimiviral Replication Machinery Suggest the Cellular Origin of Mimiviruses.Molecular biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Investigating the Concept and Origin of Viruses.Trends in microbiology · 2020Review
- The origin and evolution of viruses inferred from fold family structure.Archives of virology · 2020Review
- Fibrillarin evolution through the Tree of Life: Comparative genomics and microsynteny network analyses provide new insights into the evolutionary history of Fibrillarin.PLoS computational biology · 2020Article
- Article
- Bacterial Origin and Reductive Evolution of the CPR Group.Genome biology and evolution · 2020Article
- Review
- AnnoTree: visualization and exploration of a functionally annotated microbial tree of life.Nucleic acids research · 2019Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe discovery of giant viruses with genome and physical size comparable to cellular organisms, remnants of protein translation machinery and virus-specific parasites (virophages) have raised intriguing questions about their origin. Evidence advocates for their inclusion into global phylogenomic studies and their consideration as a distinct and ancient form of life.
resultsHere we reconstruct phylogenies describing the evolution of proteomes and protein domain structures of cellular organisms and double-stranded DNA viruses with medium-to-very-large proteomes (giant viruses). Trees of proteomes define viruses as a 'fourth supergroup' along with superkingdoms Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. Trees of domains indicate they have evolved via massive and primordial reductive evolutionary processes. The distribution of domain structures suggests giant viruses harbor a significant number of protein domains including those with no cellular representation. The genomic and structural diversity embedded in the viral proteomes is comparable to the cellular proteomes of organisms with parasitic lifestyles. Since viral domains are widespread among cellular species, we propose that viruses mediate gene transfer between cells and crucially enhance biodiversity.
conclusionsResults call for a change in the way viruses are perceived. They likely represent a distinct form of life that either predated or coexisted with the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) and constitute a very crucial part of our planet's biosphere.
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