I've read some family viruses as Siphoviridae, Myoviridae, Podoviridae and Tectiviridae have members that are able to infect archaea and bacteria, however, members belong to different clades and maybe that family is polyphyletic. For that reason some researchers think that there are no viruses with such large host range.
Are there any other opinions in this topic? Can a simple bioinformatic research answer that question?
There is no example of such virus to my knowledge, but archaeal virology is not much investigated yet. The fact that caudovirales are able to infect the two means that some viruses adapted from one kingdom to another.
In term of antiviral immunity, we have much to learn about archaea, and we can't predict if a virus can reasonably handle the antiviral defenses of both hosts.
Aimer,
I studied new CRISPRs of xanthomonads some time ago, and found sequences related to plant viruses between the CRISPRs repeats that may indicate the fact that infection of the bacteria by these viruses had happened in past.
There is no example of such virus to my knowledge, but archaeal virology is not much investigated yet. The fact that caudovirales are able to infect the two means that some viruses adapted from one kingdom to another.
In term of antiviral immunity, we have much to learn about archaea, and we can't predict if a virus can reasonably handle the antiviral defenses of both hosts.
Thanks for answer
But I'm still a little confused. if we can find DNA sequence of bacteriophage origin in plant genomes, why we couldn't know yet, if there are "archeaoviruses" DNA sequences in the genomes of the archaea that has been sequenced completely?
There is no such virus to my knowledge either, but there are certainly proviruses in archaeal genomes that have very low sequence homology to some bacteriophage genomes, but that does not mean that one can infect the other. Probably there were common ancestors to each group of viruses that infected the common ancestor of bacteria and archaea. There has also clearly been genetic exchange between bacteria and archaea. The main issue in my mind (and that of others, particularly the pioneer in the field of archaeal viruses, Wolfram Zillig) is that the gene regulatory principles of bacteria and archaea are fundamentally different from each other, so it is unlikely that a bacteriophage genome could be expressed in an archaeal host and visa-versa.
Through my study I read about sputnik virus inside mimivirus that was found in Acanthamoeba polyphase that has a relationship to your subject. Google it and you might find your information.
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