One of the most prominent features of archaea is the extraordinary diversity of their DNA viruses. Many archaeal viruses differ substantially in morphology from bacterial and eukaryotic viruses and represent unique virus families. The distinct nature of archaeal viruses also extends to the gene composition and architectures of their genomes and the properties of the proteins that they encode. Environmental research has revealed prominent roles of archaeal viruses in influencing microbial communities in ocean ecosystems, and recent metagenomic studies have uncovered new groups of archaeal viruses that infect extremophiles and mesophiles in diverse habitats. In this Review, we summarize recent advances in our understanding of the genomic and morphological diversity of archaeal viruses and the molecular biology of their life cycles and virus–host interactions, including interactions with archaeal CRISPR–Cas systems. We also examine the potential origins and evolution of archaeal viruses and discuss their place in the global virosphere.

中文翻译：

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神秘的古细菌气圈

古细菌的最突出特征之一是其DNA病毒的非凡多样性。许多古细菌与细菌和真核病毒在形态上有很大不同，并且代表独特的病毒家族。古细菌的独特性质还扩展到其基因组的基因组成和结构以及它们编码的蛋白质的特性。环境研究表明，古细菌病毒在影响海洋生态系统中的微生物群落中起着重要作用，最近的宏基因组学研究已经发现了新的古细菌病毒组，它们感染了不同生境中的极端微生物和中温微生物。在这篇评论中，我们总结了对古细菌病毒的基因组和形态多样性及其生命周期和病毒-宿主相互作用（包括与古细菌CRISPR-Cas系统的相互作用）的分子生物学理解的最新进展。我们还研究了古细菌的潜在起源和进化，并讨论了它们在全球病毒圈中的地位。