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Cited by 161Evolution and Genetic DynamicsOrigins and Evolution of LifeEvolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation

Viruses and mobile elements as drivers of evolutionary transitions

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Koonin, Eugene V.·2016·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
DOI 10.1098/rstb.2015.0442PMC PMC4958936
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Abstract

The history of life is punctuated by evolutionary transitions which engender emergence of new levels of biological organization that involves selection acting at increasingly complex ensembles of biological entities. Major evolutionary transitions include the origin of prokaryotic and then eukaryotic cells, multicellular organisms and eusocial animals. All or nearly all cellular life forms are hosts to diverse selfish genetic elements with various levels of autonomy including plasmids, transposons and viruses. I present evidence that, at least up to and including the origin of multicellularity, evolutionary transitions are driven by the coevolution of hosts with these genetic parasites along with sharing of ‘public goods’. Selfish elements drive evolutionary transitions at two distinct levels. First, mathematical modelling of evolutionary processes, such as evolution of primitive replicator populations or unicellular organisms, indicates that only increasing organizational complexity, e.g. emergence of multicellular aggregates, can prevent the collapse of the host–parasite system under the pressure of parasites. Second, comparative genomic analysis reveals numerous cases of recruitment of genes with essential functions in cellular life forms, including those that enable evolutionary transitions. 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 [338]

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Koonin, E. V.
Affiliations
National Institutes of Health (US)
Corresponding author
Koonin, Eugene V.
ORCID
Koonin, Eugene V.
Venue
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Published
2016-08-19
Volume
371
Issue
1701
Pages
20150442
ISSN
  • 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
  • 1471-2970
DOI
10.1098/rstb.2015.0442
PMC
PMC4958936
OpenAlex
W2479867351
Cited by
161
References
8
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 5
FWCI
2.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
US Department of Health and Human Services (Intramural funds)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
Keywords
evolutionary transitions, viruses, mobile genetic elements, selfish genetic elements, host-parasite coevolution, multicellularity, eukaryotic origin, eusociality, plasmids, transposable elements, public goods, gene recruitment, organizational complexity
MeSH terms
Biological Evolution, Viruses, Interspersed Repetitive Sequences

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