(9/9) Overall this preprint and the discoveries in it blur the line between viral and cellular systems as never before, making it truly legitimate to ask the question: What is a virus?

(8/9) This suggests that #selection has particularly favoured the acquisition of RP-coding genes in certain viruses, and that, in some cases, such viral genes have been transferred to cells, likely becoming essential for the survival of the host.

(7/9) Interestingly, we find that these PhiMa05 #phage RPs are the only copies of those proteins that some Vampirovibrio strains possess.

(6/9) We discover that these viral RP-coding genes were horizontally transferred to certain members of the Vampirovibrionia, an ancestral non-photosynthetic lineage of cyanobacteria, via the integration of the viral genome.

(5/9) In this manuscript we dive into the #evolutionary trajectory of the RPs encoded by PhiMa05, elaborating on the ultimate causes and consequences of this fascinating set of viral proteins.

(4/9) This makes PhiMa05 the first cyanophage reported to encode RPs, as well as the virus with the most complete RP-coding set of the known #virosphere.

(3/9) However, when they do, viruses usually harbor a single RP-coding gene. In this study, we revisit the genome of the jumbo #cyanophage PhiMa05 and show that it encodes six RPs (bS1, bL21, bL27, bL33, uL11and uL1), an RP acetyltransferase, and a ribosome biogenesis protein.

(2/9) The ultimate divide between #viruses and cells has been proposed to be the absence and presence of ribosomal genes, respectively. This view was recently challenged by the discovery that viral #genomes occasionally encode ribosomal #proteins (RPs).

Great read. Looks like #viruses also code for some of these same GAF domains: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congratulations!

Sounds very interesting. Haven't read yet but I am surprised that the authors use the name E. huxleyi given that the taxonomy of this species has changed to Gephyrocapsa huxleyi

Wow. Also beautiful TEM images!!!