ArticlePLoS biology2021
A phylogenomic framework for charting the diversity and evolution of giant viruses.
Article in PLoS biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 145 papers.
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Who cites it
145 citing papers in PubMed.
- Infection cycles of viruses of the phylum Nucleocytoviricota.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Evidence for the acquisition of a proteorhodopsin-like rhodopsin by a chrysophyte-infecting giant virus.Journal of virology · 2026Article
- 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
- Genomic catalogue of giant viruses reveals expanded diversity and functional potential.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Widespread genomic islands are hotspots of genome variations and mosaicism in giant viruses.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Giant viruses encode vitamin K-based redox modules for lipid modification.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Mycodnaviridae is a clade of giant viruses that persistently infect zoosporic fungi.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Article
- GiantHost: a domain-adaptive and uncertainty-aware framework for giant virus host prediction.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Horizontal transfer of a 180-kbp genomic fraction among the largest viral genomes.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Salinity-driven niche partitioning of aquatic viruses in one of Europe's largest estuaries.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Diversity and taxonomy of giant algal viruses: chloroviruses lead the way.Journal of virology · 2026Review
- Optimizing methods for virome analysis based on studies of a synthetic viral community.mSystems · 2026Article
- Refining a giant virus lineage: a novel order unifyingJournal of virology · 2026Article
- Giant viruses of the polar regions: diversity, endemism, adaptation and ecological structuring.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Review
- Vicennial metagenomic time series unveils evolutionary dynamics of giant viruses in a freshwater ecosystem.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Latent endogenous giant viruses drive active infection and inheritance in a multicellular algal host.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Rise of the viral giants: common themes underlying genome gigantism in eukaryotic viruses and bacteriophages.Current opinion in microbiology · 2026Review
- Genomic Analysis of Megalocytivirus Genomes Reveals Widespread Recombination.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
85 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Large DNA viruses of the phylum Nucleocytoviricota have recently emerged as important members of ecosystems around the globe that challenge traditional views of viral complexity. Numerous members of this phylum that cannot be classified within established families have recently been reported, and there is presently a strong need for a robust phylogenomic and taxonomic framework for these viruses. Here, we report a comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of the Nucleocytoviricota, present a set of giant virus orthologous groups (GVOGs) together with a benchmarked reference phylogeny, and delineate a hierarchical taxonomy within this phylum. We show that the majority of Nucleocytoviricota diversity can be partitioned into 6 orders, 32 families, and 344 genera, substantially expanding the number of currently recognized taxonomic ranks for these viruses. We integrate our results within a taxonomy that has been adopted for all viruses to establish a unifying framework for the study of Nucleocytoviricota diversity, evolution, and environmental distribution.
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