What is the Significance of Patchwork Viruses in Animals?

[mfb]

Scientists found a virus that is made out of 4 to 5 separate components - it infects mosquitos, and they have to catch at least four of those components to get infected, the smallest, fifth component is optional.

For plants and fungi, similar viruses were known before, but (at least according to the study) this is the first example in animals studied in detail. I have never heard of those things before and I thought it would be interesting to share that.

Original publication
News report

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Amazing how nature surprises us!

 

[BillTre]

I'm guessing these virus constructs are assembled randomly from co-infections of a single cell.
Perhaps step-wise if multiple parts are involved.

I'm now thinking that a mixing of genomes is pretty common in evolution.

This is from wikipedia about the E. Coli genome (wikipedia/E.coli):

Each individual genome contains between 4,000 and 5,500 genes, but the total number of different genes among all of the sequenced E. coli strains (the pangenome) exceeds 16,000. This very large variety of component genes has been interpreted to mean that two-thirds of the E. coli pangenome originated in other species and arrived through the process of horizontal gene transfer.[51]

Genome mixing has also seen among some fish species:
danios
swordtails/platies

and http://www.mbl.edu/blog/how-to-survive-without-sex-rotifer-genome-reveals-its-strategies/

Plants I don't know too well, but they are known for making polyploids often when they hybridize.

 

[Chronos]

The patchwork DNA phenomenon is not exclusive to microbes or lower life forms as discussed here http://www.nature.com/scitable/content/human-genome-patchwork-people-45410. It may well serve a vital adaptive role for all living organisms and could even explain why some species are more vulnerable to extinction