ArticleMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR2021
Viruses Defined by the Position of the Virosphere within the Replicator Space.
Article in Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 94 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
- Comprehensive analyses of archaeal viral genomes reveal genomic characteristics, divergence, and host interactions.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Reassessing viral origins and evolutionary placement in the tree of life.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- A satellite in the phage universe: isolation and characterization of six novelFEMS microbes · 2026Article
- Microbial community characterization in semi-hydroponic systems of Starbor kale (Current research in microbial sciences · 2026Article
- Core Concepts for Early Childhood Microbiology Education.Microbial biotechnology · 2026Article
- The Viruses ofViruses · 2025Article
- A novel mobile genetic element with virus-like characteristics is widespread in the world's oceans.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Distinct horizontal gene transfer potential of extracellular vesicles versus viral-like particles in marine habitats.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Human Riboviruses: A Comprehensive Study.Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Review
- Diversity and evolution of viroids and viroid-like agents with circular RNA genomes revealed by metatranscriptome mining.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Yaravirus brasiliense genomic structure analysis and its possible influence on the metabolism.Genetics and molecular biology · 2025Article
- Biomathematical enzyme kinetics model of prebiotic autocatalytic RNA networks: degenerating parasite-specific hyperparasite catalysts confer parasite resistance and herald the birth of molecular immunity.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Metagenomic insights into viral dynamics and funcation in Baijiu.Current research in food science · 2025Article
- Viroid-like colonists of human microbiomes.Cell · 2024Article
- Promotion of orderJournal of virology · 2024Article
- An Integrated Signaling Threshold Initiates IgG Response toward Virus-like Immunogens.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2024Article
- The polinton-like supergroup of viruses: evolution, molecular biology, and taxonomy.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2024Review
- Article
- Polyubiquitylated rice stripe virus NS3 translocates to the nucleus to promote cytosolic virus replication via miRNA-induced fibrillin 2 upregulation.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Originally, viruses were defined as miniscule infectious agents that passed through filters that retain even the smallest cells. Subsequently, viruses were considered obligate intracellular parasites whose reproduction depends on their cellular hosts for energy supply and molecular building blocks. However, these features are insufficient to unambiguously define viruses as they are broadly understood today. We outline possible approaches to define viruses and explore the boundaries of the virosphere within the virtual space of replicators and the relationships between viruses and other types of replicators. Regardless of how, exactly, viruses are defined, viruses clearly have evolved on many occasions from nonviral replicators, such as plasmids, by recruiting host proteins to become virion components. Conversely, other types of replicators have repeatedly evolved from viruses. Thus, the virosphere is a dynamic entity with extensive evolutionary traffic across its boundaries. We argue that the virosphere proper, here termed orthovirosphere, consists of a distinct variety of replicators that encode structural proteins encasing the replicators' genomes, thereby providing protection and facilitating transmission among hosts. Numerous and diverse replicators, such as virus-derived but capsidless RNA and DNA elements, or defective viruses occupy the zone surrounding the orthovirosphere in the virtual replicator space. We define this zone as the perivirosphere. Although intense debates on the nature of certain replicators that adorn the internal and external boundaries of the virosphere will likely continue, we present an operational definition of virus that recently has been accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.