Activeperl 5.8.4.810 download4/1/2023 ![]() These biases prevent the drawing of general conclusions. However, only a few medically or agriculturally important viruses have been examined, few of which represent random population samples. Several studies have estimated that the rate of genetic exchange in virus populations is relatively low ( 2- 16). Various mechanisms exist for genetic exchange (sex) between individual microbes, but the importance of these processes in structuring virus populations remains unclear. ![]() Microbes are the most numerous entities in the biosphere, and viruses that infect bacteria (bacteriophages) constitute the majority of these organisms ( 1). We discuss our results in light of the biological species concept applied to viruses. This extraordinary rate of genetic exchange between highly unrelated individuals is unprecedented in any taxa. ![]() The absence of LD within this group of phages is consistent with expectations for a completely sexual population, despite the fact that some segments have >50% nucleotide divergence at 4-fold degenerate sites. An extensive analysis of LD between segments supports frequent reassortment, on a time scale similar to the genomic mutation rate. Analyzing linkage disequilibrium (LD) within segments, we find no significant evidence of intrasegment recombination in wild populations, consistent with ( i). Previous laboratory manipulation has shown that, when multiple Cystoviruses infect a single host cell, they undergo ( i) rare intrasegment recombination events and ( ii) frequent genetic reassortment between segments. Here, we present a biogeography study involving 25 previously undescribed bacteriophages from the Cystoviridae clade, a group characterized by a dsRNA genome divided into three segments. Despite this numerical dominance, the genetic structure of bacteriophage populations is poorly understood. Bacteriophages are the most numerous entities in the biosphere.
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