Unveiling Crucivirus Diversity by Mining Metagenomic Data
Ignacio de la Higuera, George W. Kasun, Ellis L. Torrance, Alyssa A. Pratt, Amberlee Maluenda, Jonathan Colombet, Maxime Bisseux, Viviane Ravet, Anisha Dayaram, Daisy Stainton, Simona Kraberger, Peyman Zawar‐Reza, Sharyn J. Goldstien, James V. Briskie, Robyn White, Helen R. Taylor, Christopher Gomez, David G. Ainley, Jon S. Harding, Rafaela S. Fontenele, Joshua Schreck, Simone G. Ribeiro, Stephen A. Oswald, Jennifer M. Arnold, François Enault, Arvind Varsani, Kenneth M. Stedman
Abstract
Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth. In addition to their impact on animal and plant health, viruses have important roles in ecosystem dynamics as well as in the evolution of the biosphere. Circular Rep-encoding single-stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses are ubiquitous in nature, many are agriculturally important, and they appear to have multiple origins from prokaryotic plasmids. A subset of CRESS-DNA viruses, the cruciviruses, have homologues of capsid proteins encoded by RNA viruses. The genetic structure of cruciviruses attests to the transfer of capsid genes between disparate groups of viruses. However, the evolutionary history of cruciviruses is still unclear. By collecting and analyzing cruciviral sequence data, we provide a deeper insight into the evolutionary intricacies of cruciviruses. Our results reveal an unexpected diversity of this virus group, with frequent recombination as an important determinant of variability.