Small viruses reveal bidirectional evolution between HK97-fold viruses and encapsulins via procapsids
Abelardo Aguilar, Ingrid Miranda Perez, Omer Nadel, Stephen Nayfach, Luis Ruiz Pestana, Anca M Segall, Forest L Rohwer, Simon Roux, Simon White, Antoni Luque · 2026
Read Small viruses reveal bidirectional evolution between HK97-fold viruses and encapsulins via procapsids by Abelardo Aguilar, Ingrid Miranda Perez, Omer Nadel, Stephen Nayfach, Luis Ruiz Pestana, Anca M Segall, Forest L Rohwer, Simon Roux, Simon White, Antoni Luque (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13669383.txt.
Description
A protein fold called HK97 builds the shells of many viruses and also the tiny compartments inside bacteria known as encapsulins. Which came first has been a puzzle, sharpened by the fact that viral shells are more complex. Abelardo Aguilar and co-authors propose a two-way street in a 2026 study, and go hunting for the missing simple viruses.
They searched environmental DNA databases with profile models and protein language models. The hunt found small viral genomes whose shell proteins resemble encapsulins but lack the genes for portals and tails. Family trees mix viruses and encapsulins in independent groups. Structural comparisons tie encapsulins to procapsids, the immature form of viral shells. The authors model the fold's history as traffic in both directions, starting from simpler compartments.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Abelardo Aguilar, Ingrid Miranda Perez, Omer Nadel, Stephen Nayfach, Luis Ruiz Pestana, Anca M Segall, Forest L Rohwer, Simon Roux, Simon White, Antoni Luque |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 73 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |