Epigenetic silencing and genome dynamics determine the fate of giant virus endogenizations in Acanthamoeba.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Endogenized giant viruses are emerging as major contributors to the genome evolution of microbial eukaryotes, with both degraded and fully functional latent viruses being found integrated in diverse lineages. The mechanisms that determine the fate of viral integrants are poorly understood, however. Acanthamoeba is a unicellular eukaryote known for undergoing lateral gene transfer (LGT) with viruses. Here we have leveraged chromosome-scale assemblies of two strains of Acanthamoeba, Neff and C3, to investigate the genomic mechanisms that mediate the fate of viral integrations in eukaryotic genomes.

Results

Viral integrations in the C3 and Neff genomes are largely non-overlapping and disproportionately found in sub-telomeric regions. Multiple partial copies of these

SUBMITTER: Blais C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12210455 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature