Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24847023›Full record

ReviewMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR2014

Virus world as an evolutionary network of viruses and capsidless selfish elements.

Eugene V Koonin, Valerian V Dolja

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 117 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
117citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
39.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

117 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 239 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. HIV Genome-Wide Protein Associations: a Review of 30 Years of Research.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2016
    Pooled it
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Article
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  7. Endogenized polinton-like viruses in the dinoflagellateThe Journal of general virology · 2025
    Article
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  13. Review
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57 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Eugene V KooninNational Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, USA koonin@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
Valerian V DoljaDepartment of Botany and Plant Pathology and Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
National Center for Biotechnology Information · USOregon State University · US

Funding

Comparative Analysis Of Completely Sequenced GenomesZIALM000073 · NLM · NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE · PI KOONIN, EUGENE V · 2009 to 2025
$43.1M
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Viruses were defined as one of the two principal types of organisms in the biosphere, namely, as capsid-encoding organisms in contrast to ribosome-encoding organisms, i.e., all cellular life forms. Structurally similar, apparently homologous capsids are present in a huge variety of icosahedral viruses that infect bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. These findings prompted the concept of the capsid as the virus "self" that defines the identity of deep, ancient viral lineages. However, several other widespread viral "hallmark genes" encode key components of the viral replication apparatus (such as polymerases and helicases) and combine with different capsid proteins, given the inherently modular character of viral evolution. Furthermore, diverse, widespread, capsidless selfish genetic elements, such as plasmids and various types of transposons, share hallmark genes with viruses. Viruses appear to have evolved from capsidless selfish elements, and vice versa, on multiple occasions during evolution. At the earliest, precellular stage of life's evolution, capsidless genetic parasites most likely emerged first and subsequently gave rise to different classes of viruses. In this review, we develop the concept of a greater virus world which forms an evolutionary network that is held together by shared conserved genes and includes both bona fide capsid-encoding viruses and different classes of capsidless replicons. Theoretical studies indicate that selfish replicons (genetic parasites) inevitably emerge in any sufficiently complex evolving ensemble of replicators. Therefore, the key signature of the greater virus world is not the presence of a capsid but rather genetic, informational parasitism itself, i.e., various degrees of reliance on the information processing systems of the host.

Indexed as

Virus Physiological PhenomenaBiological EvolutionCapsidEvolution, MolecularGenes, ViralGenome, ViralVirusesVirus Replication

Identifiers

PMID24847023
PMCPMC4054253
OpenAlexW2007786086

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.