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Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Single Cell Micro-aspiration as an Alternative Strategy to Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorting for Giant Virus Mixture Separation
Published on: October 27, 2019
Giant viruses and the origin of modern eukaryotes
Patrick Forterre1, Morgan Gaïa1
1Institut Pasteur, Biologie Moléculaire du Gène chez les Extrêmophiles (BMGE), Département de Microbiologie, F-75015 Paris, France.
Abstract:
Several authors have suggested that viruses from the NucleoCytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses group (NCLDV) have played an important role in the origin of modern eukaryotes. Notably, the viral eukaryogenesis theory posits that the nucleus originated from an ancient NCLDV-related virus. Focusing on the viral factory instead of the virion adds credit to this hypothesis, but also suggests alternative scenarios. Beside a role in the emergence of the nucleus, ancient NCLDV may have provided new genes and/or chromosomes to the proto-eukaryotic lineage. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that NCLDV informational proteins, related to those of Archaea and Eukarya, were either recruited by ancient NCLDV from proto-eukaryotes and/or transferred to proto-eukaryotes, in agreement with the antiquity of NCLDV and their possible role in eukaryogenesis.
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