Virophages and retrotransposons colonize the genomes of a heterotrophic flagellate.

ABSTRACT: Virophages can parasitize giant DNA viruses and may provide adaptive anti-giant virus defense in unicellular eukaryotes. Under laboratory conditions, the virophage mavirus integrates into the nuclear genome of the marine flagellate Cafeteria burkhardae and reactivates upon superinfection with the giant virus CroV. In natural systems, however, the prevalence and diversity of host-virophage associations has not been systematically explored. Here, we report dozens of integrated virophages in four globally sampled C. burkhardae strains that constitute up to 2% of their host genomes. These endogenous mavirus-like elements (EMALEs) separated into eight types based on GC-content, nucleotide similarity, and coding potential and carried diverse promoter mot

SUBMITTER: Hackl T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8547959 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature