Towards a unifying phylogenomic framework for tailed phages.

ABSTRACT: Classifying viruses systematically has remained a key challenge of virology due to the absence of universal genes and vast genetic diversity of viruses. In particular, the most dominant and diverse group of viruses, the tailed double-stranded DNA viruses of prokaryotes belonging to the class Caudoviricetes, lack sufficient similarity in the genetic machinery that unifies them to reconstruct an inclusive, stable phylogeny of these genes. While previous approaches to organize tailed phage diversity have managed to distinguish various taxonomic levels, these methods are limited in scalability, reproducibility, and the inclusion of modes of evolution, like gene gains and losses, remain key challenges. Here, we present a novel, comprehensive, and reproducible framework for examining evolutionar

SUBMITTER: Weinheimer AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11835377 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature