Genomics of Bacterial and Archaeal Viruses
Reporter: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/?p=10187/Genomics of Bacterial and Archaeal Viruses/
- the global champions of diversity,
- they constitute a majority of organisms on the planet,
- they have large roles in the planet’s ecosystems,
- they exert a significant—some would say dominant—force on
- the evolution of their bacterial and archaeal hosts, and
- they have been doing this for billions of years,
- possibly for as long as there have been cells.
- there are 1031 individual tailed phage virions in the global biosphere—
- enough to reach for 200 million light years if laid end to end—and measurements of population turnover suggest that
- it takes roughly 1024 productive infections per second to maintain the global population.
- genetic structure of viral populations,
- the mechanisms of viral evolution, and
- the diversity of viral sequences.
- analysis of metagenomic data provides strong evidence that
- there is more genetic diversity in the genes of the viruses of prokaryotes
- than in any other compartment of the biosphere.
- carbon and energy cycling in the oceans and other natural environments and
- as major agents in the ecology and evolution of their cellular hosts.
- for capsid proteins and other virion proteins,
- together with information about virion assembly mechanisms,
- have allowed surprising inferences about ancestral connections among genes whose DNA sequences and encoded protein sequences
- have diverged to the point that they are no longer detectably related.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22126996
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/MMBR.00011-11
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- Viruses Pass Major Test to Enter Ranks of Living (livescience.com)
- Viruses can have immune systems: A pirate phage commandeers the immune system of bacteria (sciencedaily.com)
- Insights into Dynamics of Mobile Genetic Elements in Hyperthermophilic Environments from Five New Thermococcus Plasmids (plosone.org)
- Viruses With Immune System Found, Indicates They Are Living Creatures (scienceworldreport.com)
- Viruses pass major test to enter ranks of living (science.nbcnews.com)
- Archaea Are More Wonderful Than You Know (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
- Virus Stole Bacteria Immune System Now Kills Resistant Cholera (medicaldaily.com)
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