Abstract
The present review deals with conceptual and experimental approaches to two aspects of the origin and molecular evolution of viruses. In the section “Role of Retrons, Retroelements, and Reverse Transcriptase in the Evolution of Retroviruses and in Eukaryotic Genome Plasticity”, Temin’s concept that retrons are an ancient genetic element that during evolution of the species gave rise to retroviruses is presented. An opposing view of Xiong and Eickbush that the most probable ancestor of current retroelements is a retrotransposable element with gag- and pol-like genes is presented. Minus-strand RNA viruses are also discussed. The second aspect of this review is the molecular evolution of viruses at the level of the virus genome. Spiegelman’s experiment on the evolution of self-replicating nucleic acid molecules outside living cells and Eigen’s experimental and conceptual approaches to this subject are presented, along with studies on the evolutionary rates of base substitutions in viral RNA and defective molecules generated during replication.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Temin H., Cell 27, 599–600, 1980.
Temin H., Persp Biol Med 14, 11–26, 1970.
Temin H., Science 792, 1075–1080, 1976.
Yee T. and Inouye M., J Bacteriol 145, 1257–1265, 1981.
Lampson BC, Inouye S, and Inouye M., Prog Nucleic Acid Res Mol Biol 40, 1–24, 1991.
Inouye M. and Inouye S., J Bacteriol 174, 2419–2424, 1992.
Temin H., Nature 226, 254–255, 1989.
Hull R. and Covey S.N., J Gen Virol 67, 151–158, 1986.
Kim A., Terzian C, Santamoria P., Pelisson A., Prudhomme B., and Buchton A., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91, 1285–1289, 1994.
Mariani-Constantini R., Horn T.M., and Callahan R., J. Virology 63, 4982–4985, 1989.
Padney R., Ghosh A.K., Vinod Kumar D., Bachman B.A., Shibuta D., and Roy Burman P., J Virol 65, 6495–6508, 1991.
Xiong Y. and Eickbusch T.H., EMBO J 9, 3353–3362, 1990.
Tordo N., De Haan P., Goldbach R., and Foch O., Semin Virola, 3, 341–357, 1992.
Mills D.R., Peterson R.L., and Spiegelman S., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 58, 217–224, 1967.
Eigen M., Gene 135, 31–41, 1993.
Eigen M. and Nieselt-Struwe K., AIDS Curr Sei 5, 585–593, 1991.
Gojobori T., Moriyama E.N., and Kimura M., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87, 10015–10018, 1990.
Nowak M., J Theor Biol 150, 339–347, 1991.
Bonhoeffer S. and Nowak M.A., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97, 8062–8066, 1994.
Szathmary E., J Theor Biol 757, 383–406, 1992.
Szathmary E., J Theor Biol 765, 341–356, 1993.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Becker, Y. (1996). A Short Introduction to the Origin and Molecular Evolution of Viruses. In: Becker, Y. (eds) Molecular Evolution of Viruses — Past and Present. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1407-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1407-3_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8610-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1407-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive