Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-Borne Pathogens, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
Biomolecules. 2022 Jul 30;12(8):1061. doi: 10.3390/biom12081061.
Although traditionally viewed as streamlined and simple, discoveries over the last century have revealed that viruses can exhibit surprisingly complex physical structures, genomic organization, ecological interactions, and evolutionary histories. Viruses can have physical dimensions and genome lengths that exceed many cellular lineages, and their infection strategies can involve a remarkable level of physiological remodeling of their host cells. Virus-virus communication and widespread forms of hyperparasitism have been shown to be common in the virosphere, demonstrating that dynamic ecological interactions often shape their success. And the evolutionary histories of viruses are often fraught with complexities, with chimeric genomes including genes derived from numerous distinct sources or evolved de novo. Here we will discuss many aspects of this viral complexity, with particular emphasis on large DNA viruses, and provide an outlook for future research.
尽管传统上认为病毒结构简单，但上个世纪的发现揭示了它们具有惊人复杂的物理结构、基因组组织、生态相互作用和进化历史。病毒的物理尺寸和基因组长度可以超过许多细胞谱系，它们的感染策略可能涉及宿主细胞显著水平的生理重塑。病毒之间的通讯以及广泛存在的超寄生现象已经在病毒界中得到证实，这表明动态的生态相互作用常常塑造了它们的成功。此外，病毒的进化历史往往充满了复杂性，嵌合基因组包括来自众多不同来源的基因或新进化的基因。在这里，我们将讨论这种病毒复杂性的许多方面，特别强调大型 DNA 病毒，并展望未来的研究方向。
