title: Cellular domains and viral lineages.
abstract: It has been claimed that giant DNA viruses represent a separate, fourth domain of life in addition to the domains of Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Such classification disregards fundamental differences between the two types of living entities - viruses and cells - and results in confusion and controversies in evolutionary scenarios. We highlight these problems and emphasize the importance of restricting the term 'domain' to the descendants of the last universal cellular ancestor (LUCA), based on the shared ribosome structure. We suggest tracing phylogeny of viruses along evolutionary lineages primarily defined by virion architectures and the structures of the major capsid proteins.
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, 25 rue du Dr Roux, 75015, Paris, France; Institut de Génétique et Microbiologie, University Paris-Sud, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR 8621, 91405 Orsay CEDEX, France. Electronic address: forterre@pasteur.fr.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Forterre
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, 25 rue du Dr Roux, 75015, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Mart
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krupovic
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, 25 rue du Dr Roux, 75015, Paris, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Prangishvili
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004267:DNA Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D010802:Phylogeny; D014771:Virion / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins
keywords: evolution; mimivirus; phylogeny; tree of life; viruses