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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Amplification, Next-generation Sequencing, and Genomic DNA Mapping of Retroviral Integration Sites
Published on: March 22, 2016
The dual lifestyle of genome-integrating virophages in protists
Mónica Berjón-Otero1, Anna Koslová1, Matthias G Fischer1
1Department of Biomolecular Mechanisms, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany.
Abstract:
DNA viruses with efficient host genome integration capability were unknown in eukaryotes until recently. The discovery of virophages, satellite-like DNA viruses that depend on lytic giant viruses that infect protists, revealed a genetically diverse group of viruses with high genome mobility. Virophages can act as strong inhibitors of their associated giant viruses, and the resulting beneficial effects on their unicellular hosts resemble a population-based antiviral defense mechanism. By comparing various aspects of genome-integrating virophages, in particular the virophage mavirus, with other mobile genetic elements and parasite-derived defense mechanisms in eukaryotes and prokaryotes, we show that virophages share many features with other host-parasite systems. Yet, the dual lifestyle exhibited by mavirus remains unprecedented among eukaryotic DNA viruses, with potentially far-reaching ecological and evolutionary consequences for the host.
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