Giant viruses encode novel types of actins possibly related to the origin of eukaryotic actin: the viractins
Da Cunha, V.; Gaïa, M.; Ogata, H.; Jaillon, O.; Delmont, T. O.; Forterre, P.
Show abstract
Actin is a major component of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. Many related actin homologues can be found in eukaryotes1, some of them being present in most or all eukaryotic lineages. The gene repertoire of the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) therefore would have harbored both actin and various actin-related proteins (ARPs). A current hypothesis is that the different ARPs originated by gene duplication in the proto-eukaryotic lineage from an actin gene that was inherited from Asgard archaea. Here, we report the first detection of actin-related genes in viruses (viractins), encoded by 19 genomes belonging to the Imitervirales, a viral order encompassing the giant Mimiviridae. Most viractins were closely related to the actin, contrasting with actin-related genes of Asgard archaea and Bathyarchaea (a newly discovered clade). Our phylogenetic analysis suggests viractins could have been acquired from proto-eukaryotes and possibly gave rise to the conventional eukaryotic actin after being reintroduced into the pre-LECA eukaryotic lineage.
Matching journals
The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Host adaptive radiation is associated with rapid virus diversification and cross-species transmission in African cichlid fishes 96%
- Eukaryotic genomic data uncover an extensive host range of mirusviruses 95%
- Lateral gene transfer of anion-conducting channelrhodopsins between green algae and giant viruses 95%
Similar papers in this journal
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.