Mirusviruses Link Herpesviruses to Giant Viruses

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2023 Apr 19

PMID 37076623

Authors

Morgan Gaia

Lingjie Meng

Eric Pelletier

Patrick Forterre

Chiara Vanni

Antonio Fernandez-Guerra

Olivier Jaillon

Patrick Wincker

Hiroyuki Ogata

Mart Krupovic

Tom O Delmont

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

DNA viruses have a major influence on the ecology and evolution of cellular organisms, but their overall diversity and evolutionary trajectories remain elusive. Here we carried out a phylogeny-guided genome-resolved metagenomic survey of the sunlit oceans and discovered plankton-infecting relatives of herpesviruses that form a putative new phylum dubbed Mirusviricota. The virion morphogenesis module of this large monophyletic clade is typical of viruses from the realm Duplodnaviria, with multiple components strongly indicating a common ancestry with animal-infecting Herpesvirales. Yet, a substantial fraction of mirusvirus genes, including hallmark transcription machinery genes missing in herpesviruses, are closely related homologues of giant eukaryotic DNA viruses from another viral realm, Varidnaviria. These remarkable chimaeric attributes connecting Mirusviricota to herpesviruses and giant eukaryotic viruses are supported by more than 100 environmental mirusvirus genomes, including a near-complete contiguous genome of 432 kilobases. Moreover, mirusviruses are among the most abundant and active eukaryotic viruses characterized in the sunlit oceans, encoding a diverse array of functions used during the infection of microbial eukaryotes from pole to pole. The prevalence, functional activity, diversification and atypical chimaeric attributes of mirusviruses point to a lasting role of Mirusviricota in the ecology of marine ecosystems and in the evolution of eukaryotic DNA viruses.

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