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. 2023 Apr 19;616(7958):783–789. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-05962-4

Fig. 4. Evolutionary trajectories of the eukaryotic informational module.

Fig. 4

a, Summary of the occurrence of hallmark genes for the informational and virion modules in Nucleocytoviricota, mirusviruses, herpesviruses and Caudoviricetes. Informational module genes with a strong evolutionary relationship are connected with a line. Genes containing information pointing to a common eukaryotic viral ancestry between mirusviruses and herpesviruses are framed. VLTF3, viral late transcription factor 3. b,c, Descriptions of two evolutionary scenarios in which the informational module of eukaryote-infecting viruses within the realms Duplodnaviria and Varidnaviria first emerged in the ancestor of either Nucleocytoviricota (giant virus hypothesis) or mirusviruses (mirusvirus hypothesis).