Review
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Sarah D'Adamo, Richard Kormelink, Dirk Martens, Maria J. Barbosa, Rene H. Wijffels
Summary: Viruses, besides being pathogens, play a crucial role in evolution and can influence host fitness, population dynamics, and community structures. Microalgae biotechnology is a rapidly advancing field that investigates the use of photosynthetic microorganisms for various industries. The study of viruses infecting microalgae has become an important subject of ecological research, and so far, 63 viruses that infect eukaryotic microalgae have been identified and cultured.
BIOTECHNOLOGY ADVANCES
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Ruonan Wu, Eric M. Bottos, Vincent G. Danna, James C. Stegen, Janet K. Jansson, Michelle R. Davison
Summary: Arctic permafrost thawing leads to the emergence of RNA viruses that target eukaryotic hosts and pose potential threats to humans, animals, and plants. This study identifies a diverse RNA viral community in thawed permafrost samples, showing distinct compositions compared to other habitats. The detection of potential pathogens highlights the importance of environmental reservoirs for RNA viral pathogens, particularly in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding viral-host interactions and the ecological roles of RNA viruses in thawed permafrost is crucial.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christopher Bellas, Thomas Hackl, Marie-Sophie Plakolb, Anna Koslova, Matthias G. Fischer, Ruben Sommaruga
Summary: Eukaryotic genomes contain endogenous viral elements (EVEs) derived from RNA and ssDNA viruses, which are considered genomic fossils. However, the study of EVEs has focused mostly on animals and plants, neglecting protists. This study reveals that protist genomes contain diverse dsDNA viruses, including virophages and Polinton-like viruses, which were hidden due to their repetitive nature. The study suggests that many protist EVEs are intact, actively colonizing hosts across the eukaryotic tree, and may be functional viruses.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Virology
Jean-Marie Alempic, Audrey Lartigue, Artemiy E. E. Goncharov, Guido Grosse, Jens Strauss, Alexey N. N. Tikhonov, Alexander N. N. Fedorov, Olivier Poirot, Matthieu Legendre, Sebastien Santini, Chantal Abergel, Jean-Michel Claverie
Summary: A quarter of the Northern hemisphere is covered by permafrost, releasing organic matter and reviving ancient viruses and microbial cells as it thaws due to climate warming, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. While previous studies mainly focused on bacteria in permafrost, this study reports the preliminary characterization of 13 new viruses isolated from ancient Siberian permafrost samples, suggesting that zombie viruses are not as rare as previously believed. This highlights the potential public health threat of these revived viruses.
Review
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Patrick Forterre, Morgan Gaia
Summary: Viruses have played a crucial role in the evolution of modern eukaryotes, and it is proposed that interactions between ancient eukaryoviruses and proto-eukaryotes were also significant in eukaryogenesis. Phylogenetic analyses provide evidence of viral origins for several key proteins in eukaryotic molecular biology. Recent observations also suggest a possible viral origin for the cellular nucleus. Furthermore, the mechanisms of cell differentiation in multicellular organisms might have originated from viral mechanisms transforming infected cells into virocells.
M S-MEDECINE SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Ho-Jin Gwak, Mina Rho
Summary: A hierarchical BERT model named ViBE was developed to detect eukaryotic viruses from metagenome sequencing data and classify them at the order level, outperforming state-of-the-art alignment-based and alignment-free methods for virus identification.
BRIEFINGS IN BIOINFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Anna Munke, Kei Kimura, Yuji Tomaru, Han Wang, Kazuhiro Yoshida, Seiya Mito, Yuki Hongo, Kenta Okamoto
Summary: This paper focuses on one major group of marine algae viruses, the single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses from the Bacilladnaviridae family. The study reveals the structure of the capsid protein of a bacilladnavirus and the organization of the ssDNA genome, providing insights into the importance of genetic recombination for the emergence and evolution of ssDNA viruses.
Article
Virology
Endrya do Socorro Foro Ramos, Geovani de Oliveira Ribeiro, Fabiola Villanova, Flavio Augusto de Padua Milagres, Rafael Brustulin, Emerson Luiz Lima Araujo, Ramendra Pati Pandey, V. Samuel Raj, Xutao Deng, Eric Delwart, Adriana Luchs, Antonio Charlys da Costa, Elcio Leal
Summary: Metagenomics based on NGS was used to characterize the enteric virome of 250 individuals with gastroenteritis in northeastern and northern Brazil. The study revealed common viral sequences associated with GI, as well as emerging human viruses and viral contigs from various sources. This approach proved to be a powerful tool for detecting and characterizing a wide range of viruses in clinical GI samples.
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Anna Duckworth, Hilary J. Longhurst, Jane K. Paxton, Chris J. Scotton
Summary: Pulmonary fibrosis is a serious lung disease that can result from genetic or environmental exposures, or may be idiopathic. Recent evidence suggests short telomeres may play a causal role in PF. The involvement of herpes viruses in PF disease remains a debated topic with inconclusive evidence.
FRONTIERS IN MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Eniko Feher, Eszter Mihalov-Kovacs, Eszter Kaszab, Yashpal S. Malik, Szilvia Marton, Krisztian Banyai
Summary: This study identified a diversity of CRESS DNA viruses in fecal samples collected from apparently healthy swine herd, with multiple novel CRESS DNA viruses found to infect the swine herd simultaneously. Investigation of the association between presence of CRESS DNA viruses and swine health conditions seems to be justified.
Review
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Syun-ichi Urayama, Yoshihiro Takaki, Yuto Chiba, Yanjie Zhao, Misa Kuroki, Daisuke Hagiwara, Takuro Nunoura
Summary: This review summarizes the host-virus relationships of eukaryotic microbial RNA viruses. By analyzing the classification and environmental distribution of different virus families, it is found that persistent-type viruses play an important role in viral diversity and host relationships.
MICROBES AND ENVIRONMENTS
(2022)
Article
Virology
David M. Knipe, Amy Prichard, Surendra Sharma, Joe Pogliano
Summary: This review discusses the assembly of replication compartments by DNA viruses infecting host cells from different domains of life, and highlights the shared replication strategies between eukaryotic cells and bacteria.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF VIROLOGY
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Marina Barba-Aliaga, Paula Alepuz, Jose E. Perez-Ortin
Summary: In eukaryotic cells, three nuclear RNA polymerases may have evolved from a single enzyme in a common ancestor with archaea. This diversity allows each polymerase to specialize in synthesizing different types of transcripts, potentially influencing the evolution of regulatory mechanisms to adapt to environmental changes.
FRONTIERS IN MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Caroline Tochetto, Samuel Paulo Cibulski, Ana Paula Muterle Varela, Cristine Cerva, Diane Alves de Lima, Thais Fumaco Teixeira, Fabiana Quoos Mayer, Paulo Michel Roehe
Summary: This study identified various CRESS DNA viral genomes in serum of commercially reared pigs from southern Brazil, including a novel genus named 'Suismacovirus'.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL VIROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Zhenzhi Han, Jinbo Xiao, Yang Song, Xiaonan Zhao, Qiang Sun, Huanhuan Lu, Keyi Zhang, Jichen Li, Junhan Li, Fenfen Si, Guoyan Zhang, Hehe Zhao, Senquan Jia, Jienan Zhou, Dongyan Wang, Shuangli Zhu, Dongmei Yan, Wenbo Xu, Xiaoqing Fu, Yong Zhang
Summary: This study used metagenomic next-generation sequencing to investigate the viral diversity in different host species in Yunnan province, China. Multiple RNA viruses were identified and analyzed for their genome organization, genetic divergence, and phylogenetic relationships. The newly discovered viruses showed significant variations and evidence of recombination events, suggesting the emergence of new species or even genera. The study also estimated the evolutionary characteristics of the viruses among different hosts, highlighting the close association between emerging viruses and infectious diseases, and emphasizing the importance of more comprehensive surveys.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
