Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The viral eukaryogenesis hypothesis posits that eukaryotes are composed of three ancestral elements: a viral component that became the modern nucleus; a prokaryotic cell (an archaeon according to the eocyte hypothesis) which donated the cytoplasm and cell membrane of modern cells; and another prokaryotic cell (here bacterium) that, by endocytosis, became the modern mitochondrion or chloroplast.
Viral evolution is a subfield of evolutionary biology and virology concerned with the evolution of viruses. [1] [2] Viruses have short generation times, and many—in particular RNA viruses—have relatively high mutation rates (on the order of one point mutation or more per genome per round of replication).
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. [1] Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. [2] [3] Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity.
Stentor coeruleus, used in molecular biology (its genome has been sequenced), [5] and is studied as a model of single-cell regeneration.; Dictyostelium discoideum, used in molecular biology and genetics (its genome has been sequenced), and is studied as an example of cell communication, differentiation, and programmed cell death.
Rolling circle replication produces multiple copies of a single circular template. Rolling circle replication (RCR) is a process of unidirectional nucleic acid replication that can rapidly synthesize multiple copies of circular molecules of DNA or RNA, such as plasmids, the genomes of bacteriophages, and the circular RNA genome of viroids.
The current definition of an overlapping gene varies significantly between eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and viruses. [2] In prokaryotes and viruses overlap must be between coding sequences but not mRNA transcripts, and is defined when these coding sequences share a nucleotide on either the same or opposite strands.
Viral RdRps were discovered in the early 1960s from studies on mengovirus and polio virus when it was observed that these viruses were not sensitive to actinomycin D, a drug that inhibits cellular DNA-directed RNA synthesis. This lack of sensitivity suggested the action of a virus-specific enzyme that could copy RNA from an RNA template. [3]
Many individually named viruses (sometimes referred to as "virus strains") exist at below the rank of virus species. The ICVCN gives the examples of blackeye cowpea mosaic virus and peanut stripe virus, which are both classified in the species Bean common mosaic virus, the latter a member of the genus Potyvirus that will in due course receive a ...