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Does the evolution of viral polymerases reflect the origin and evolution of viruses?

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 7, page 250 (2009)Cite this article

A swiftly increasing amount of available genomic information allures scientists to systematize the data and embed it into evolutionary scenarios. The recent analysis of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), superfamily 3 helicase and chymotrypsin-like protease sequences by Koonin and co-workers (Big Bang of picorna-like virus evolution antedates the radiation of eukaryotic supergroups. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 6, 925–939 (2008))1 clusters a number of RNA viruses into the picorna-like superfamily and led to the proposal that this group has a monophyletic origin. This superfamily, which includes viruses in the order Picornavirales, is now proposed to include other viruses from ten viral families as well as several as-yet-unclassified virus species. The characteristic feature of classical icosahedral picorna-like viruses is the jelly-roll capsid protein fold2. The new proposal by Koonin et al. combines both icosahedral (single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)) and helical viruses that have no similarities in virion architecture. The common nominator for all these viruses is the presence of a gene that encodes a related RdRp.

We note that the jelly-roll fold is common to most of the icosahedral ssRNA eukaryotic viruses and is likely to reflect a monophyletic origin for these viruses2. However, the jelly-roll fold, as well as the virion assembly principles of picornaviruses, is unrelated to the capsid proteins of dsRNA viruses, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae L-A virus (Totiviridae family), which in turn was found to share architectural principles with other dsRNA viruses that infect eukaryotes (Reoviridae family) and bacteria (Cystoviridae family)8.

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Figure 1: Comparison of the main capsid protein X-ray structures of bacteriophages.
Figure 2: Evolution of polymerases does not necessarily reflect the evolution of viruses.

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  1. Mart Krupovič and Dennis H. Bamford are at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Institute of Biotechnology, Biocenter 2, Po Box 56 (Viikinkaari 5), 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.,

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Correspondence to Dennis H. Bamford.

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Krupovič, M., Bamford, D. Does the evolution of viral polymerases reflect the origin and evolution of viruses?. Nat Rev Microbiol 7, 250 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2030-c1

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