Discovery of Link between Herpesviruses and Giant Viruses.
Researchers with the Tara Oceans project have discovered a new phylum of DNA viruses called mirusviruses that are shaped like herpesviruses and infect eukaryotes but share a key enzyme with large and giant viruses. The mirusviruses are among the most abundant eukaryotic viruses in the sunlit oceans and are super active within the plankton they infect, indicating that they likely play key roles in the marine ecosystem. The discovery suggests that these eukaryotic viruses share a common ancestor with herpesviruses, and the authors speculate that the shared enzyme was transferred between a giant virus and this common ancestor.
