Viroviroids of giant viruses expand the spectrum of hosts of the smallest parasites
Résumé
The evolution of organisms is partly linked to parasitism by transposons or their equivalents. Viroids, the smallest pathogens, have been described in plants. They consist of circular stem-loop hairpin-containing RNA sequences. Recently viroids have been identified in animals, and in humans the Delta agent and a new agent named 'obelisk' have been reported as viroids. We have been able to highlight the equivalent of these viroids in the form of 88-101-nucleotide-long molecules, homologous to 18S rRNA, and intriguingly found within tupanvirus genomes. These sequences may multiply faster than the viral genome and therefore have all the characteristics of a parasite, and they resemble viroids and transposons. We believe that this is a new class of viroids that we have called ‘viroviroids’ and which are viroids of giant viruses expanding the spectrum of viroid hosts.
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