Phylogenetic and Phyletic Studies of Informational Genes in Genomes Highlight Existence of a 4th Domain of Life Including Giant Viruses

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 5; no. 12; p. e15530
• Main Authors: Boyer, Mickaël, Madoui, Mohammed-Amine, Gimenez, Gregory, La Scola, Bernard, Raoult, Didier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 02.12.2010
• Subjects: Archaea; Bacteria; Biology; Biosynthesis; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA viruses; Enzymes; Eukarya; Eukaryotes; Gene sequencing; Genes; Genomes; Influenza; Pattern analysis; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Proteins; Ribonucleotide reductase; Topology; Transcription factors; Trees; Viruses; France

The discovery of Mimivirus, with its very large genome content, made it possible to identify genes common to the three domains of life (Eukarya, Bacteria and Archaea) and to generate controversial phylogenomic trees congruent with that of ribosomal genes, branching Mimivirus at its root. Here we use...