Polinton-like Viruses Associated with Entomopoxviruses Provide Insight into Replicon Evolution
Journal: bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Year: 2023

Abstract Polinton-like viruses (PLVs) are a diverse group of small integrative dsDNA viruses that infect diverse eukaryotic hosts. Many PLVs are hypothesized to parasitize viruses in the phylum Nucleocytoviricota for their own propagation and spread. Here we analyze the genomes of novel PLVs associated with the occlusion bodies of entomopoxvirus (EV) infections of two separate lepidopteran hosts. The presence of these elements within EV occlusion bodies suggests that they are the first known hyp