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Background <p>Asgard archaea, broadly considered as a group of archaea that exhibit the closest evolutionary relationship with eukaryotes, encode diverse defense systems and are infected by distinct viruses. However, the diversity of Asgard archaeal viruses and their interactions with the hosts remain poorly explored.</p> Results <p>Here, using CRISPR spacer-protospacer matching, we predict 23 viruses associated with Asgard archaea from various habitats. Apart from clusters with known viruses, we report three previously undescribed groups of Asgard viruses with predicted head-tailed virions of the realm <i>Duplodnaviria</i> and filamentous virions characteristic of the archaea-specific realm <i>Adnaviria</i>. Mapping of metagenomic reads to viral and host genomes suggested that most Asgard viruses display relatively low virus-to-host ratios, typically below 10. In addition, we considerably expanded the known defensome of Asgard archaea, among others, detecting putative PARIS and Prometheus defense systems. Finally, the diversity of anti-defense proteins and putative archaeal type IV pilins encoded by some Asgard viruses provide additional insights into the interactions between Asgard archaea and their viruses.</p> Conclusions <p>Overall, this work sheds new light on the Asgard archaeal virome and defensome, and virus-host interactions.</p> <p><MediaObject ID="MOESM4"><VideoObject FileRef="MediaObjects/40168_2026_2481_MOESM4_ESM.mp4" VideoID="Af59aL_xBxvvcnrxGWfeqg"><Caption Language="En" xml:lang="en"><CaptionContent><p>Video Abstract</p></CaptionContent></Caption></VideoObject></MediaObject></p>

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Expansion of the Asgard archaeal virome and defensome provides insights into virus-host interactions

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月30日

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  • Chengxiang Gu,
  • Rui Zhang,
  • Yang-zhi Rao,
  • Xinxu Zhang,
  • Zhichao Zhou,
  • Yang Liu,
  • Xiyang Dong,
  • Long Wang,
  • Yinzhao Wang,
  • Zheng-shuang Hua,
  • Mart Krupovic,
  • Meng Li

摘要

Background

Asgard archaea, broadly considered as a group of archaea that exhibit the closest evolutionary relationship with eukaryotes, encode diverse defense systems and are infected by distinct viruses. However, the diversity of Asgard archaeal viruses and their interactions with the hosts remain poorly explored.

Results

Here, using CRISPR spacer-protospacer matching, we predict 23 viruses associated with Asgard archaea from various habitats. Apart from clusters with known viruses, we report three previously undescribed groups of Asgard viruses with predicted head-tailed virions of the realm Duplodnaviria and filamentous virions characteristic of the archaea-specific realm Adnaviria. Mapping of metagenomic reads to viral and host genomes suggested that most Asgard viruses display relatively low virus-to-host ratios, typically below 10. In addition, we considerably expanded the known defensome of Asgard archaea, among others, detecting putative PARIS and Prometheus defense systems. Finally, the diversity of anti-defense proteins and putative archaeal type IV pilins encoded by some Asgard viruses provide additional insights into the interactions between Asgard archaea and their viruses.

Conclusions

Overall, this work sheds new light on the Asgard archaeal virome and defensome, and virus-host interactions.

Video Abstract