Phylogenetic Tracings of Proteome Size Support the Gradual Accretion of Protein Structural Domains and the Early Origin of Viruses from Primordial Cells.

ABSTRACT: Untangling the origin and evolution of viruses remains a challenging proposition. We recently studied the global distribution of protein domain structures in thousands of completely sequenced viral and cellular proteomes with comparative genomics, phylogenomics, and multidimensional scaling methods. A tree of life describing the evolution of proteomes revealed viruses emerging from the base of the tree as a fourth supergroup of life. A tree of domains indicated an early origin of modern viral lineages from ancient cells that co-existed with the cellular ancestors. However, it was recently argued that the rooting of our trees and the basal placement of viruses was artifactually induced by small genome (proteome) size. Here we show that these claims arise from misunderstanding and misinterpr

SUBMITTER: Nasir A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5481351 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature