Giant viruses likely represent whole new branch on tree of life

[Further]

These giant viruses only share 7% of our genes. They are substantially different from the three branches of life, eukaryotes, bacteria and archaea. It amazes me how much is still to be discovered.

http://www.nature.com/news/giant-viruses-open-pandora-s-box-1.13410?WT.ec_id=NEWS-20130723

The organism was initially called NLF, for “new life form”. Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Abergel, evolutionary biologists at Aix-Marseille University in France, found it in a water sample collected off the coast of Chile, where it seemed to be infecting and killing amoebae. Under a microscope, it appeared as a large, dark spot, about the size of a small bacterial cell.

Later, after the researchers discovered a similar organism in a pond in Australia, they realized that both are viruses — the largest yet found. Each is around 1 micrometre long and 0.5 micrometres across, and their respective genomes top out at 1.9 million and 2.5 million bases — making the viruses larger than many bacteria and even some eukaryotic cells.

But these viruses, described today in Science1, are more than mere record-breakers — they also hint at unknown parts of the tree of life. Just 7% of their genes match those in existing databases.

“What the hell is going on with the other genes?” asks Claverie. “This opens a Pandora’s box. What kinds of discoveries are going to come from studying the contents?” The researchers call these giants Pandoraviruses.

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[crandc]

All viruses are in a separate category from eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and archaea, but these seem to be in a separate category of viruses. It's not that we share 7% of their DNA, only 7% of their DNA matches any known data base. At least we know they are DNA viruses and not retroviruses.

So much to be learned is why science is so exciting. So much more than "god did it end of story" creationism.

 

[Further]

All viruses are in a separate category from eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and archaea, but these seem to be in a separate category of viruses. It's not that we share 7% of their DNA, only 7% of their DNA matches any known data base. At least we know they are DNA viruses and not retroviruses.

So much to be learned is why science is so exciting. So much more than "god did it end of story" creationism.

Yep, thanks for correcting me on the 7%, posted it quickly last night and didn't pay enough attention to my writing.

I just think how amazing all that we have learned in the last decade since we have been able to sequence the genome. In many cases the phyla that we believed to be right for ages has proven to be dead wrong.

One thing I like about science, it invites new information and has no ego in admitting past wrongs. It turns on a dime when new information brings about a better answer.