Comparative Genomics of Haloarchaeal Viruses
Elina Roine
from: Halophiles: Genetics and Genomes (Edited by: R. Thane Papke and Aharon Oren). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2014)
Abstract
Haloarchaeal viruses have been among the least studied group with prokaryotic (i.e. bacteria and archaea) hosts. However, recent efforts have brought the number of isolated haloarchaeal viruses from 20 to almost 70, environmental phage genomes from 1 to more than 40 and increased the amount of environmental sequences of halophilic viral fraction with several megabases. Also, new research has further reinforced the observation that haloarchaeal viruses are more reminiscent of bacteriophages (i.e. bacteria infecting viruses) than the morphologically varying crenarchaeal viruses. This review will update the latest advances in genomics of haloarchaeal viruses, its impact on taxonomy, and suggest some additional aspects of the bacteriophage genomics that may prove to be of significance also in haloarchaeal viral genomics read more ...
