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Journal of Virology, December 2001, p. 11720-11734, Vol. 75, No. 23
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.23.11720-11734.2001
Common Origin of Four Diverse Families of Large
Eukaryotic DNA Viruses
Lakshminarayan M.
Iyer,
L.
Aravind, and
Eugene V.
Koonin*
National Center for Biotechnology
Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20894
Received 29 May 2001/Accepted 7 August 2001
 |
ABSTRACT |
Comparative analysis of the protein sequences encoded in the
genomes of three families of large DNA viruses that replicate, completely or partly, in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells (poxviruses, asfarviruses, and iridoviruses) and phycodnaviruses that replicate in
the nucleus reveals 9 genes that are shared by all of these viruses and
22 more genes that are present in at least three of the four compared
viral families. Although orthologous proteins from different viral
families typically show weak sequence similarity, because of which some
of them have not been identified previously, at least five of the
conserved genes appear to be synapomorphies (shared derived characters)
that unite these four viral families, to the exclusion of all other
known viruses and cellular life forms. Cladistic analysis with the
genes shared by at least two viral families as evolutionary characters
supports the monophyly of poxviruses, asfarviruses, iridoviruses, and
phycodnaviruses. The results of genome comparison allow a tentative
reconstruction of the ancestral viral genome and suggest that the
common ancestor of all of these viral families was a nucleocytoplasmic
virus with an icosahedral capsid, which encoded complex systems for DNA
replication and transcription, a redox protein involved in disulfide
bond formation in virion membrane proteins, and probably inhibitors of
apoptosis. The conservation of the disulfide-oxidoreductase, a major
capsid protein, and two virion membrane proteins indicates that the
odd-shaped virions of poxviruses have evolved from the more common
icosahedral virion seen in asfarviruses, iridoviruses, and phycodnaviruses.
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INTRODUCTION |
The category of virus is biological,
not evolutionary. Viruses are intracellular parasites that
depend on the host cell for their protein synthesis, most of the
reactions of nucleic acid precursor biosynthesis and, to a variable
extent, transcription and replication (15).
Clearly, viruses are not a monophyletic group. There is little doubt,
for example, that small viruses with single-stranded RNA genomes of
only 5 to 10 kb, such as poliovirus or tobacco mosaic virus, on the one
hand, and large viruses with double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) genomes of 100 to 500 kb, such as herpesviruses, poxviruses, or iridoviruses, on the
other hand, have evolved independently. However, comparative analyses
of the genomes of many groups of viruses have suggested common origins for large, heterogeneous assemblages. For example, it appears most
likely that all reverse-transcribing viruses and mobile elements, in
spite of the extreme diversity of their life cycles and the sets of
encoded proteins, have evolved from a common ancestor (17, 56,
70). Even more unexpected evolutionary connections are suggested
by the involvement of homologous enzymes, such as superfamily III
helicases, in genome replication of both RNA and DNA viruses with small
genomes (23), and the central role of the conserved
rolling circle replication initiator protein in single-stranded DNA
(ssDNA) viruses of eukaryotes and bacteria and in bacterial plasmids
(26).
Viruses with large, dsDNA genomes are generally thought to have evolved
by capturing multiple genes from the genomes of cellular organisms,
their hosts. Indeed, many genes of these viruses, particularly those
involved in virus-host interactions, show high levels of protein
sequence similarity to their cellular homologs, which is apparently
indicative of relatively recent acquisition by the viral genomes
(12, 51, 59). However, viruses belonging to a particular
large family, such as the herpesvirus family or the poxvirus family,
share between themselves a core set of genes encoding proteins involved
in DNA replication, transcription, and virion biogenesis, most of which
are only moderately similar to cellular homologs, if such are
detectable at all (3, 51). The existence of core sets of
up to 40 to 50 conserved viral genes (8, 22) establishes
beyond reasonable doubt that the extant members of the families
Herpesviridae and Poxviridae have diverged from
the respective ancestral viruses that already possessed the principal
features of genome replication and expression and of virion structure
that are typical of these viral families. In contrast, it remains
unclear whether there are any evolutionary connections between
different viral families. Poxviruses, African swine fever virus (ASFV,
the archetypal member of the family Asfarviridae), and
iridoviruses are the three families of eukaryotic viruses with large
dsDNA genomes that undergo their replication cycle either entirely in
the cytoplasm (poxviruses) or start their replication in the nucleus
and complete it in the cytoplasm (20, 22, 38, 40, 63, 67),
as opposed to herpesviruses and baculoviruses, whose DNA replication
and transcription occur exclusively in the nucleus (30,
65). Poxviruses, asfarviruses, and iridoviruses encode their own
transcription machinery, which includes, in each case, several RNA
polymerase subunits and additional transcription factors, and share
several other conserved genes (58, 72). Large DNA viruses
isolated from very diverse algae, the Paramecium bursaria
chlorella virus (PBCV) and the related Ectocarpus
siliculosus virus (ESV), members of the Phycodnaviridae
family, also share several genes with nucleocytoplasmic large DNA
viruses, although genomes of these viruses are transcribed in the
nucleus and, accordingly, they lack genes for RNA polymerase subunits
(41, 61). The four families of large eukaryotic DNA
viruses, Poxviridae, Asfarviridae, Iridoviridae, and Phycodnaviridae, to which we
collectively refer here as nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV),
have both common and unique features of genomic DNA and virion
structure. Poxviruses, ASFV, and PBCV have linear DNA genomes with
terminal inverted repeats that form covalently closed hairpins
(40, 67, 75), iridoviruses have circularly permuted linear
genomes (60), and ESV appears to have a circular genome
(41). The virions of ASFV, iridoviruses, and PBCV consist
of a DNA-protein core that is surrounded by a lipid bilayer, which in
turn is encased in one or more icosahedral capsid shells (58, 63,
66). Poxviruses have a more complex, unique virion structure,
with a core surrounded by a "brick-shaped" proteolipid shell
(40).
It remains uncertain whether the similarities between the gene
repertoires, genome structures, and virion architectures of different
families of NCLDV are due to independent recruitment of the same or
related host genes driven by the common functional requirements for the
viral replication cycles or by origin from a common viral ancestor.
This crucial dilemma is not readily amenable to conventional
phylogenetic analysis because even homologous proteins of viruses from
different families show moderate or weak sequence conservation and may
be less similar to each other than to the corresponding cellular
homologs (51). At face value, these observations appear to
favor the polyphyletic origin of different viral families. However,
this aspect of the relationships between viruses needs to be
interpreted with caution given the realistic possibility of rapid
evolution of viral genes (44). Moreover, such rapid
divergence potentially might even preclude the very detection of
evolutionary relationships between some viral genes. Given these
considerations, we were interested in delineating the complete set of
conserved genes among NCLDV by applying the most advanced available
methods for sequence similarity detection and assessing the hypothesis
of independent recruitment of similar sets of genes from the host as
opposed to an origin of several viral families from a single, ancestor
virus. We expand the list of conserved genes shared by all or a
majority of NCLDV families and show that origin from a common viral
ancestor is the most parsimonious scenario for the evolution of all of
these viruses.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Viral genome and protein sequences.
Nucleotide sequences of
the complete genomes of large DNA viruses and the corresponding,
predicted protein sequences were extracted from the Genomes division of
the Entrez system (National Center for Biotechnology Information,
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?db=Genome]). The complete genomes included in this analysis were from the
following viruses: poxviruses, including vaccinia virus, strain
Copenhagen (VV [21]), variola virus, strain India (VAR
[37]), Molluscum contagiosum virus type 1 (MCV [50]), Shope fibroma virus (SFV [66]), Fowlpox virus (FPV [2]),
Melanoplus sanguinipes entomopoxvirus (MSV
[1]), Amsacta moorei entomopoxvirus (AMV
[8]); asfarviruses, including ASFV (72); iridoviruses,
including fish lymphocystis disease virus (FLDV [58]),
Chilo iridescent virus (CIV [27]); and phycodnaviruses,
including PBCV (type 1 [35]) and ESV (type 1; N. Delaroque, G. Bothe, T. Pohl, R. Knippers, D. G. Mueller, and W. Boland [GenBank NC002687]).
Sequence analysis.
Protein sequences were compared to
protein sequence databases by using the BLASTP program and to
nucleotide sequence databases translated in six frames by using the
TBLASTN program (5). Additional searches for detecting
subtle similarities were performed by using the PSI-BLAST program with
varied cutoffs for including sequences into profiles (4,
5). Multiple alignments of protein sequences were constructed by
using the ClustalW (57) and T_coffee programs
(43), with subsequent manual refinement on the basis of
the PSI-BLAST search results. Protein secondary structure was predicted
by using the PHD program, with a multiple alignment submitted as the
query (47). Protein sequence-structure threading was
performed by using the hybrid fold recognition method
(16).
Identification of clusters of orthologous viral proteins.
In
order to identify sets of orthologous viral proteins, single-linkage
clustering based on BLASTP search results was performed by using the
BLASTCLUST program and an empirically determined alignment score cutoff
of 0.2 bits/position (I. Dondoshansky, Y. I. Wolf, and E. V. Koonin, unpublished data; ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast). For
resulting clusters that included representatives of two or more viral
families, additional PSI-BLAST searches were performed against the NR
database, with all sequences from the original cluster used as queries.
Position-specific weight matrices obtained through these searches were
saved and used for a second round of searching the NCLDV protein
sequences. This was done to detect potential members of the given
protein cluster encoded in the genomes from other virus families that
could have been missed at the first stage due to low sequence conservation.
Cladistic analysis.
Cladistic analysis was performed by
using the PAUP* version 4.0 package (55). A maximum of
four states, namely, the primitive state (0) and up to three derived
states (1, 2, and 3), were considered. The relationship between the
derived states was assumed to be unordered, that is, a primitive
character could make the transition to any of the derived states if
more than one derived state existed for the given character. Gain of a
novel protein, domain, or sequence motif was scored as a derived
character with respect to its complete absence, which was defined as
the primitive state. The size ranges and domain architectures of
proteins were also used as characters scored in the matrix. The
shortest trees were determined by using the Branch and Bound and the
Exhaustive Search algorithms. The consensus of the shortest trees was
obtained by using the Consensus Tree routine of PAUP. The character
state transitions for each node of the shortest trees were derived by
using the Show Apomorphy routine of PAUP, and this was used to
determine the synapomorphies supporting a given clade.
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
Clusters of orthologous viral proteins.
Viral proteins tend to
evolve faster than their cellular counterparts, which makes it
difficult to detect homologous relationships for some of them.
Therefore, the detection of orthologous sets of viral proteins is not a
trivial task and, in some cases, requires application of the most
advanced sequence analysis methods. Furthermore, for detecting clusters
of viral orthologs, it was important to compare viral proteins among
themselves only, to limit the search space and thus increase the
sensitivity. Once the clusters were identified, their relationships
with non-NCLDV proteins were investigated by additional sequence
comparisons; the results of these comparisons were then used for
refinement of the NCLDV clusters.
The present study resulted in the identification of 9 clusters of
apparent orthologs that are shared by all NCLDV, 8 clusters that are
represented in all families (although missing in one or more species),
and 14 clusters that are conserved in all but one family (Table
1). To our knowledge,
the conservation of five of these
proteins in all viral families has not been described previously. These include the predicted helicase D5R
(hereinafter we use the systematic nomenclature of proteins from
VV Copenhagen, whenever possible), the packaging ATPase A32L,
the transcription factor A1L, the capsid protein D13L, and the
myristoylated virion membrane protein L1R/F9L (Table 1). The critical
aspect of these clusters of conserved viral proteins is that, although
they did not necessarily show a high level of sequence conservation,
each of them had distinct features that appeared to be synapomorphies (shared derived characters) of the NCLDV class. Despite systematic searches, we were unable to identify direct counterparts (orthologs) of
any of these proteins outside this class of viruses, with the possible
exception of D5R orthologs from some bacteriophages. Furthermore, for
the two virion proteins, no non-NCLDV homologs at all were detected. We
briefly describe each of these signature NCLDV protein families below,
with an emphasis on the features that support their status as
synapomorphies.
D5 NTPase and helicase.
VV D5R protein is an NTPase that is
essential for viral DNA replication (14). The D5R protein
and its orthologs in other NCLDV are peripheral members of the AAA+
class of NTPases (42), as demonstrated by the detection of
these sequences in iterative database searches started with many AAA+
NTPase sequences. Within the AAA+ class, the D5R family belongs to the
so-called helicase superfamily III (SFIII), which consists
entirely of viral and plasmid proteins (Fig.
1A). Originally, SFIII has been
identified as an assemblage of
(predicted) helicases encoded by small RNA and DNA viruses (23,
31). We found that, in PSI-BLAST searches seeded with the
sequence of the predicted ATPase domains of poxvirus D5R proteins,
statistically significant similarity to E1 proteins of papillomaviruses
(bona fide members of SFIII) was detected in the fifth iteration. The
closest homologs of the predicted NCLDV helicases are encoded by
certain bacteriophages, in some cases integrated into bacterial
chromosomes (Fig. 1A). The predicted helicases of NCLDV and this subset
of bacteriophage helicases share a distinct, conserved region upstream
of the ATPase domain that is not found in any other proteins (Fig. 1A).
The NCLDV group also has several unique motifs within the predicted
ATPase domain (Fig. 1A).




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FIG. 1.
Multiple alignments of conserved proteins that define
the cytoplasmic DNA virus clade. (A) D5R-like helicases. With the PBCV
ATPase as the seed, the ESV ortholog and many phage primases were
recovered with highly significant Expectation (E) values in the first
iteration. Proteins from the other NCLDV and the distantly related
papillomavirus, parvovirus, and positive-strand RNA viruses were
recovered in the second and third iterations with E-values of
<10 3. For example, ASFV C962R was recovered with an
E-value of 10 8 in the third iteration. Further transitive
searches identified all of the members of superfamily III
helicase. (B) A32L-like ATPases. With the PBCV ATPase as the
seed, iridoviral orthologs were recovered in the first iteration with
an E-value of <10 5. Orthologs from all other NCLDV were
recovered by the third iteration with significant E-values such as
3 × 10 19 for MCV and 2 × 10 04
for ASFV orthologs. (C) A1L-like transcription factors. A profile made
with previously detected FCS domains from the polyhomeotic and FIM
families of proteins, when run against the NCLDV protein sets, with an
inclusion cutoff of 0.01, recovered all members of this family; VV A1L,
for example, was recovered with an E-value of 10 4. (D)
D13L-like capsid proteins. With p50 of the Spodoptera
exigua ascovirus as the seed, the PBCV and other iridoviral
capsid proteins were recovered with E-values of <2 × 10 8. The ASFV ortholog was detected in the third
iteration with an E-value of 3 × 10 3, and the
poxviral D13L-like proteins were recovered at borderline E-values
(0.14) in the fourth iteration. When a profile made from the alignment
of the PBCV, iridovirus, and ASFV sequences was run against a database
of all NCLDV proteins, the poxviral orthologs were detected as top
hits, with E-values of <10 5. The probability of the
conserved motifs shown here to occur in these proteins by chance was
<10 15, as computed by using the MACAW program
(49). (E) L1R/F9L-like virion membrane proteins. With CIV
048L as the seed, the ASFV and PBCV orthologs were recovered in the
second iteration, with E-values of 8 × 10 4 and
10 3, respectively. The entomopoxviral orthologs were
detected in the third iteration with an E-value of 2 × 10 4. A transitive search with the entomopoxviral proteins
recovered the other poxviral proteins with E-values of
<10 3. Each protein is denoted by the corresponding gene
name followed by species abbreviation and the GenBank Identifier (GI)
number. The numbers preceding and following the alignments indicate the
positions of the first and last residues of the aligned regions in the
corresponding protein sequences. The numbers between aligned blocks
indicate the number of inserted residues that were omitted from the
figure. The coloring reflects the conservation of amino acid residues
at 85% consensus. The coloring scheme and the consensus abbreviations
are as follows: hydrophobic residues (LIYFMWACV) are designated "h"
in the consensus line, aliphatic (LIAV) residues are also shaded yellow
and designated "l," alcohol (S,T) is blue and designated "o,"
charged (KERDH) residues are purple and designated "c," polar
(STEDRKHNQ) residues are purple and designated "p," small
(SACGDNPVT) residues are green and designated "s," big
(LIFMWYERKQ) residues are shaded gray and designated "b." Conserved
cysteines predicted to form a Zn-finger structure (C) or a disulfide
bond (E) are indicated by white letters against a red background.
Secondary structure elements predicted by using the PHD program are
indicated in panels C and D; where "E" indicates extended
conformation (b-strand) and "H" indicates the -helix. The
abbreviations for the NCLDV are defined in Materials and Methods.
Additional abbreviations: AAV, adeno-associated virus 5; AcNPV,
Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus; Bf,
Bacteroides fragilis, Ce, Caenorhabditis
elegans; Cglu, Corynebacterium glutamicum; Cpf,
Clostridium perfringens; Dm, Drosophila
melanogaster; DpAV4, Diadromus pulchellus
ascovirus; Ec, Escherichia coli; HPV08, human
papillomavirus type 8; Hs, Homo sapiens; LcbA2,
Lactobacillus casei bacteriophage A2; Mace,
Methanosarcina acetivorans; MStV, maize streak virus;
phi-105, Bacteriophage phi-105; phiC31, Bacteriophage phiC31; Polio,
human poliovirus 1; SacV, Spodoptera exigua ascovirus;
Si, Sulfolobus islandicus; SV40, Simian virus 40;
Xf, Xylella fastidiosa.
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Packaging ATPase A32L.
The A32L gene product has been
predicted to possess ATPase activity, primarily on the basis of the
conservation of the P-loop and Mg2+-binding
motifs (33), and subsequently has been shown to be involved in DNA packaging into virions (13). Comparisons
of the NCLDV protein sets and iterative database searches detected apparent orthologs of A32L in all NCLDV (Fig. 1B). Although these predicted ATPases may be distantly related to the AAA+ superclass, they
showed no specific relationship with any other ATPase family. In
particular, other ATPases do not contain readily detectable counterparts of the C-terminal motifs of A32L, which should be considered a synapomorphy of NCLDV (Fig. 1B).
Transcription factor A1L.
A1L is a small protein that contains
a Zn-finger-domain that we designated the FCS-finger (so named after a
characteristic amino acid signature) and functions as a transcriptional
transactivator of late VV genes (28); A1L orthologs were
found in all NCLDV. The FCS-finger is a previously undetected
Zn-binding domain that we identified in several eukaryotic chromatin
proteins such as the Drosophila Sex Combs on Middle Leg,
Polyhomeotic, Lethal 3 of Malignant Brain Tumor, and vertebrate FIM.
This domain is also found fused to the C termini of recombinases from
certain prokaryotic transposons. However, A1L orthologs from NCLDV are
a distinct stand-alone form of the FCS domain and thus should be
considered an NCLDV synapomorphy (Fig. 1C).
Capsid protein D13L.
The virions of different NCLDV have
dramatically different structures. The major capsid proteins of
iridoviruses and phycodnaviruses, both of which have icosahedral
capsids surrounding an inner lipid membrane, showed a high level of
sequence conservation. A more limited, but statistically significant
sequence similarity was observed between these proteins and the major
capsid protein (p72) of ASFV, which also has an icosahedral capsid. It
was surprising, however, to find that all of these proteins shared a
conserved domain with the poxvirus protein D13L, which is an integral
virion component thought to form a scaffold for the formation of viral crescents and immature virions (54). In spite of low
sequence similarity, D13L sequences share a common domain with
conserved predicted structural elements with the major capsid proteins
of the other NCLDV (Fig. 1D). The capsid proteins of iridoviruses, phycodnaviruses, and ASFV have an additional C-terminal domain that is
predicted to adopt the jelly roll fold typical of capsid proteins of
numerous DNA and RNA viruses (46). In poxvirus D13L proteins, the jelly roll domain is replaced by a distinct
-strand-rich domain that showed no detectable relationship with any
known domains. This difference in the C-terminal domains of poxvirus
D13L proteins compared to the major capsid proteins of other NCLDV
probably reflects the new function of D13L as a scaffold for viral crescents.
Virion membrane protein L1R/F9L.
Paralogous poxvirus genes L1R
and F9L encode membrane proteins that have a conserved domain
architecture, with a single, C-terminal transmembrane helix, and an
N-terminal, multiple-disulfide-bonded domain (51). The L1R
protein is myristoylated and has been implicated in virion assembly
(45, 68). Homologs of the L1R/F9L family proteins so far
have not been detected outside poxviruses. However, our comparisons
revealed apparent representatives of this family in all NCLDV, with the
single exception of ESV (Fig. 1E). With the exception of PBCV, all
NCLDV share two of the disulfide-bond-forming cysteine residues and
have a transmembrane helix C-terminal to the core domain. The PBCV
protein is highly divergent and seems to have lost the
disulfide-bonding cysteines; however, it has an additional
cysteine-rich, EGF-like domain that is also found in other PBCV
proteins (data not shown). This domain is inserted between the core
L1R-like domain and the C-terminal transmembrane helix.
A conserved structural role for this protein is compatible with the
existence of a lipid membrane in all NCLDV, in spite of
the major
differences in virion structure. Furthermore, the conservation
of the
myristoylated, disulfide-bonded protein in most of the
NCLDV correlates
with the conservation of the thiol-disulfide
oxidoreductase E10R which,
in VV, is required for the formation
of disulfide bonds in L1R and F9L
(
52).
Other apparent synapomorphies of NCLDV.
Even when apparent
orthologs of a viral protein are present in cellular life forms, the
viral version may have unique features. An example is the
thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase E10R. The proteins of this family
encoded by different NCLDV show limited sequence similarity to each
other, and some are more similar to apparent orthologs from eukaryotes,
such as the yeast ERV1/2 proteins (52). However, all
nonviral members of this family share two pairs of conserved cysteines,
whereas only one pair is conserved in the proteins from NCLDV.
Another notable ancestral protein family of NCLDV consists of homologs
of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a protein
that is
ubiquitous in cellular life forms and functions as the
sliding clamp
during DNA replication (
11). The members of the
PCNA
superfamily identified in NCLDV show limited sequence similarity
to the
cellular homologs; in fact, the poxvirus PCNA homologs
(G8R) were
identified in this study only through the use of the
sequence-structure
threading technique. Phylogenetic analyses
on the PCNA superfamily
indicated that the NCLDV PCNA homologs
tend to cluster together, to the
exclusion of eukaryotic homologs,
but typically form longer branches
than any cellular PCNAs, suggesting
rapid divergence during NCLDV
evolution (unpublished data). Poxvirus
G8R is the most divergent member
of the PCNA superfamily. The
available experimental evidence points to
a principal role of
this protein in vaccinia virus late gene
transcription, rather
than replication (
69,
74),
suggesting a causal connection
between rapid sequence divergence and
the change of
function.
Among the proteins that are conserved in three of the four NCLDV
families, the most notable one is the membrane protein that,
in
poxviruses, is represented by three paralogs, J5L, G9R, and
A16L, which
are predicted to form multiple disulfide bonds (
51).
These
proteins resemble the virion membrane proteins of the L1R/F9L
group in
domain architecture, but appear not to be homologous
to them or to any
other
proteins.
Cladistic analysis suggests monophyly of NCLDV.
Phylogenetic
tree analysis of those NCLDV proteins that have homologs in other
viruses and in cellular life forms, such as DNA polymerase, helicases
and others (Table 1), fails to support monophyly of NCLDV
(26; unpublished observations). However, this cannot be
considered strong evidence against monophyly because viral genomes tend
to evolve rapidly, resulting in distortions of phylogenetic tree
topologies. Indeed, as discussed above, even those groups of
orthologous NCLDV proteins that comprise clear synapomorphies show only
limited sequence conservation. Therefore, as an alternative approach
for assessing the evolutionary relationships among the NCLDV,
we undertook formal cladistic analysis (25) of viral
gene sets after identifying probable orthologs in other viruses and
cellular organisms (Table 1). All genes that occur in at least two
families of NCLDV were scored as described in Materials and Methods to
obtain character states for the terminal taxa under examination. The 11 terminal taxa considered in this analysis were chordopox viruses,
entomopox viruses, asfarviruses (ASFV), iridoviruses (CIV and FLDV),
PBCV, ESV, herpesviruses, baculoviruses, bacteriophage T4, and the
eukaryotic cell (host cell). A total of 59 characters were scored over
these 11 taxa to construct the data matrix used in the cladistic
analysis (data not shown [available as supplementary material from the
authors]).
Trees that provided the shortest path of character state changes to
result in the character configuration observed in the
terminal taxa
were identified by using the Branch and Bound method
and the Exhaustive
Search algorithm that evaluates all possible
tree topologies for the
given terminal taxa. One most parsimonious
tree was found that
supported the monophyly of the NCLDV by 16
synapomorphies. As expected,
the monophyly of the so-called phycodnavirus
clade (PBCV plus ESV) and
the poxvirus clade (entomopox viruses
plus chordopoxviruses) was
strongly supported (Fig.
2). In addition,
there was a weaker support for the monophyly of the animal viruses
(poxviruses plus ASFV plus iridoviruses), to the exclusion of
the
phycodnaviruses, by six synapomorphies. Furthermore, the tree
contained
a clade consisting of poxviruses and asfarviruses, to
the exclusion of
the iridoviruses, which was supported by eight
synapomorphies. This
tree was used to extract a list of derived
shared characters for the
NCLDV clade that were used in reconstructing
the repertoire of genes
present in the hypothetical NCLDV (see
below). The monophyly of the
three animal viral families, namely,
asfarviruses, iridoviruses, and
poxviruses, emerged consistently
with different sets of characters, but
the relationships among
these families were highly sensitive to minor
changes in characters
used in the analysis (data not shown). Thus, the
actual branching
pattern within the animal NCLDV clade requires
additional data
for confident resolution.

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FIG. 2.
Consensus cladogram of cytoplasmic DNA viruses. The
cladistic analysis was performed as described in the text. The proteins
that were probably present in the common ancestor of the universally
supported NCLDV clade are superimposed on the consensus tree. Also
shown on the consensus tree are the state changes in each of the
terminal lineages and the strictly supported clades. The plus sign
indicates a character that is most parsimoniously explained as an
independent gain that was most likely acquired through horizontal
transfer between the viral genome or through transfer from the host
genome. The minus sign denotes the loss of an ancestral character in a
particular lineage.
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Hypothetical ancestral NCLDV.
Given the support for a
monophyletic NCLDV clade, the possibility emerges for an approximate
reconstruction of the hypothetical ancestral virus. The genes that are
shared by all viruses within this clade are obvious candidates for
ancestral origin but, additionally, other genes identified as
synapomorphies of the NCLDV clade are also, according to the parsimony
principle, likely to have been present in their last common ancestor.
These typically are genes present in the majority of the NCLDV taxa
considered in this analysis. Under this reasoning, the absence of
otherwise conserved genes in one lineage is attributed to gene loss, in
case of essential genes accompanied by nonorthologous gene displacement
(32). Lineage-specific gene loss obviously occurred also
within individual NCLDV families, particularly in ESV, which does not
have many genes conserved in all or most NCLDV, including PBCV, and,
among poxviruses, in MCV that has lost all genes involved in nucleotide metabolism (51). A probable example of displacement is the
topoisomerase function that is represented by the predicted ancestral
form, type II topoisomerase, in asfarviruses, iridoviruses, and
phycodnaviruses (except for ESV, which apparently has lost this gene),
whereas poxviruses have an unrelated type IB topoisomerase. Some of the genes that are conserved in only two of the NCLDV families also might
be part of the legacy of the ancestral virus, but in these cases, it is
difficult to rule out alternative scenarios, such as independent
acquisition from the host or horizontal gene transfer.
Under these assumptions, we arrive at a conservative list of 31 ancestral viral genes (Table
1); for comparison, all poxviruses
share
ca. 50 genes (
8). Considering that the ancestral virus
might have been a simpler entity than its extant descendants,
even this
conservative reconstruction may be a reasonable approximation
of the
ancestral set of essential viral genes. Examination of
this list
suggests that the ancestral NCLDV already had fairly
elaborate systems
for genome replication and expression, some
enzymes of nucleotide
metabolism, a packaging mechanism, capsid
and membrane virion proteins,
an electron-transfer system for
disulfide-bond formation in the latter,
a mechanism of protein
phosphorylation-dephosphorylation probably
involved in the regulation
of virion morphogenesis, and possibly an
apoptosis inhibitor (Table
2).
Given the presence of nucleocytoplasmic, purely cytoplasmic, and
nuclear life cycles in the monophyletic assemblage of NCLDV,
it appears
most likely that their last common ancestor had both
nuclear and
cytoplasmic phases in its life cycle. From this ancestral
state, some
of the descendant lineages, such as phycodnaviruses,
appear to have
moved to an entirely nuclear replication. The wholly
nuclear
replication of vertebrate iridoviruses (
22,
36) also
appears to be a secondary adaptation because FLDV has lost several
essential enzymes that are essential for viruses that replicate
in the
cytoplasm, such as DNA ligase, capping enzyme, and
topoisomerase.
The ancestral virus can be inferred to have had an icosahedral capsid
with an inner membrane layer, a structure most similar
to those of
iridoviruses and PBCV. This notion is supported by
the presence of
icosahedral capsids in three of the four NCLDV
families, which
correlates with the presence of the jelly roll
domain in the major
capsid protein, and the general consideration
of the icosahedron being
one of the basic virion structures in
numerous, diverse viruses. The
more complex organization of poxvirus
virions appears to be a derived
state. With the previously described
conservation of the ERV-family
thiol-oxidoreductase and glutaredoxin
(with the apparent exception of
ASFV) that contribute to the formation
of disulfide bonds in virion
membrane proteins (
51,
52) and
the present demonstration
of the conservation of three structural
proteins of the virion, the
evolutionary connection between the
poxvirus virions and those of other
NCLDV appears
certain.
The genes of the ancestral NCLDV that were responsible for virus-host
interaction cannot be inferred from the comparison of
extant viral
genomes because the repertoires of such genes in
different NCLDV
families are largely different and, based on the
existence of highly
similar cellular homologs for most of them,
must have been acquired
independently. The BIR domain-containing
apoptosis inhibitor could be
an exception to this general pattern
(Table
1). We are unlikely to get
any insight into this aspect
of the ancestral NCLDV until clear
indications are obtained as
to what kind of host it infected. If the
fungal connections mentioned
below point to the original host, a
relatively simple genome with
a small number of host-interaction genes
seems a plausible
possibility.
Relationships between NCLDV and other genetic elements and origin
of NCLDV.
Many NCLDV genes have homologs or even apparent
orthologs in other viruses and plasmids (Table 1). In particular,
multiple relationships have been previously noticed to exist between
NCLDV genes (specifically, those of poxviruses) and genes of T-even bacteriophages (34, 62). However, neither T-even phages
nor herpesviruses or baculoviruses possess a significant subset of the
core gene set of the NCLDV (Table 1). Furthermore, the genes that are
shared do not show appreciable synapomorphic features. Therefore,
direct evolutionary relationships between these classes of viruses
apparently cannot be positively established. The observed overlaps
between gene sets can be explained largely by independent acquisition
of genes that are generically required for DNA virus replication
(for example, DNA polymerase, ribonucleotide reductase, or thymidylate
kinase) and, possibly, some cases of horizontal gene exchange.
A more coherent relationship appears to exist between the NCLDV and
linear DNA plasmids from fungal mitochondria, with five
shared genes
(of the 10 to 12 genes that are typically present
on these plasmids
[
18,
39]) (Table
1). Importantly, these
seem to be the
principal genes that are required for DNA virus
genome expression in
the cytoplasm, including two RNA polymerase
subunits, a helicase
involved in transcription, and a capping
enzyme with a conserved domain
architecture (Table
1). In at
least one case, that of the D6R-type
helicase, the NCLDV proteins
show high sequence similarity to the
plasmid homolog, to the exclusion
of other homologous helicases (data
not shown). It seems plausible
that the fungal plasmids indeed contain
a part of the core gene
set of the hypothetical ancestral NCLDV.
However, the fungal plasmid
genomes have a terminal protein that
functions in replication
priming and, in this respect, resemble
adenoviruses and protein-priming
DNA phages (
48), rather
than NCLDV; the monophyly of DNA polymerases
from protein-priming
viruses and plasmids is supported by phylogenetic
tree analysis
(
29). Thus, the data suggest complex evolutionary
relationships, with components of the replication and expression
systems drawn from different types of genetic elements, rather
than a
direct link between the NCLDV and fungal
plasmids.
A complex evolutionary scenario for the origin of the NCLDV, including
multiple gene exchanges between different types of
genomes, is
suggested by the phyletic provenance of several other
genes shared by
all or a subset of NCLDV families. These include
the replicative
helicase D5R, the Holliday junction resolvase
(HJR) A22R, and the
predicted protease I7L (Table
1). The distribution
of the D5R homologs
is particularly unusual. As shown above (Fig.
1), true orthologs of the
NCLDV replicative helicase were detected
only in certain
bacteriophages. More distant members of the helicase
III
superfamily are encoded by diverse small genetic elements,
including ssDNA viruses (geminiviruses and parvoviruses), small
dsDNA
viruses (papovaviruses), positive-strand RNA viruses (for
example,
picornaviruses), some phages, and plasmids. So far, no
members of this
superfamily encoded in genomes of cellular life
forms (some prophages
notwithstanding) have been detected. This
distribution pattern of an
essential viral gene suggests a long
history of dissemination between
(relatively) small genomes, perhaps
tracing back to the ancient RNA
world.
A different evolutionary history appears plausible for the RuvC-like
HJR A22R, which is present in poxviruses, at least some
iridoviruses,
and phycodnaviruses, suggesting that it might have
been inherited from
the common ancestor of the NCLDV. This enzyme
belongs to a family of
resolvases that are common in bacteria
but not detectable in
eukaryotes, except for a nuclease that functions
in fungal
mitochondria; the latter shows the strongest (albeit
limited) sequence
similarity to the resolvases of NCLDV (
19).
This suggests
at least two horizontal transfers, from protomitochondria
to fungi and
from fungi to the ancestral NCLDV (assuming that
this resolvase indeed
is inherited by NCLDV from their common
ancestor). In the lineages
which lack the RuvC-like HJR, such
as PBCV and ASFV, it might have been
displaced by an alternative
enzyme, namely, the Lambda-type exonuclease
that is present in
these viruses (
6) (Table
1) or the
RecB-like nuclease in
PBCV.
The available data are insufficient to reconstruct a complete
evolutionary scenario for the origin of the ancestral NCLDV.
Genome
sequencing of representatives of additional viral families
has
the potential to shed light on the evolutionary source(s)
of NCLDV as
suggested, for example, by the recent preliminary
analysis of the
genome of the archaeal virus SIRV1 (
9). This
virus has a
relatively small genome of 32 kB with covalently closed
hairpins at the
ends, which resembles the genome structure of
poxviruses, asfaviruses,
and phycodnaviruses. However, the HJR
and dUTPase of SIRV1 show clear
archaeal affinities, emphasizing
a difference from NCLDV (unpublished
data). Taken together, the
above observations show that the ancestral
viral genome probably
assembled via gradual accretion of genes from
different genetic
sources, including host genomes, plasmids, and other
viruses.
It appears that a complex history of multiple horizontal genes
transfers and gene losses both preceded and succeeded the emergence
of
the ancestral NCLDV. Thus, it is all the more notable that
this
evolutionary focal point can be identified and some basic
aspects of
the replication of the ancestral virus can be reconstructed
with
reasonable confidence on the basis of a detailed comparison
of extant
viral
genomes.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
We thank Bernard Moss for critical reading of the manuscript and
useful suggestions and Stewart Shuman for a helpful discussion.
 |
ADDENDUM IN PROOF |
While this article was being processed for production, a paper
describing the sequence of the ESV1 genome was published (N. Delaroque,
D. G. Muller, G. Bothe, T. Pohl, R. Knippers, and W. Boland, Virology
287:112-132, 2001).
 |
FOOTNOTES |
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: National Center
for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bldg. 38A, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD
20894. Phone (310) 435-5913. Fax: (310) 435-7794. E-mail:
koonin{at}ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
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