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Evolutionary transitions during RNA virus experimental evolution
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In their search to understand the evolution of biological complexity, John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry put forward the notion of major evolutionary transitions as those in which elementary units get together to generate something new, larger and more complex. The origins of chromosomes, eukaryotic cells, multicellular organisms, colonies and, more recently, language and technological societies are examples that clearly illustrate this notion. However, a transition may be considered as anecdotal or as major depending on the specific level of biological organization under study. In this contribution, I will argue that transitions may also be occurring at a much smaller scale of biological organization: the viral world. Not only that, but also that we can observe in real time how these major transitions take place during experimental evolution. I will review the outcome of recent evolution experiments with viruses that illustrate four major evolutionary transitions: (i) the origin of a new virus that infects an otherwise inaccessible host and completely changes the way it interacts with the host regulatory and metabolic networks, (ii) the incorporation and loss of genes, (iii) the origin of segmented genomes from a non-segmented one, and (iv) the evolution of cooperative behaviour and cheating between different viruses or strains during co-infection of the same host. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The major synthetic evolutionary transitions’.
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In silico coevolution models, in vitro evolution and genomic analyses have shown that parasites actively promote diversity and evolvability.
“In silico coevolution models [333,334], in vitro evolution [335,336] and genomic analyses [337,338] have shown that parasites actively promote diversity and evolvability, as illustrated by the phylogenetic trees in figure 9a,b.”
From Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems (2024) · cites this paper as [336]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Elena, S. F.
- Affiliations
- Santa Fe Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Elena, Santiago F.
- ORCID
- Elena, Santiago F.
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2016-08-19
- Volume
- 371
- Issue
- 1701
- Pages
- 20150441
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC4958935
- OpenAlex
- W2490563094
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 0.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RiuNet (Universitat Politècnica de València) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- European Commission (EvoEvo ICT610427)
- Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación (BFU2012-30805)
- Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/021)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy of Biology and Scientific Explanation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Keywords
- major transitions, RNA viruses, experimental evolution, host-virus interaction, segmented genome, co-infection, cheating, cooperation
- MeSH terms
- Biological Evolution, RNA Viruses, Genome, Viral, Evolution, Molecular, Microbial Interactions, Coinfection
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