Baculoviruses, like their holometabolous host insects, comprise a monophyletic clade and, since the evolutionary origin of this virus family, have coevolved with their hosts. Despite this intimate coevolutionary relationship, baculoviruses have occasionally diverged independently of the host phylogeny by acquiring new infection mechanisms. Given that current baculovirus genomes contain various anti-apoptotic genes and pseudogenes, the possibility arises that ancient baculoviruses had the genetic means to counter antiviral host apoptosis mechanisms. In this review, we propose an evolutionary scenario for baculovirus diversification in which the development of novel antiviral apoptosis mechanisms in host insects provided the necessary pressure to produce new baculovirus lineages possessing novel anti-apoptotic genes. This apoptotic arms race and subsequent viral host adaptation likely play a crucial role in the establishment of baculovirus diversity.

中文翻译：

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昆虫杆状病毒共同进化中的凋亡军备竞赛

杆状病毒，像它们的全代谢宿主昆虫一样，包含一个单系进化枝，并且自从这个病毒家族的进化起源以来，已经与它们的宿主共同进化。尽管存在这种密切的共同进化关系，但杆状病毒偶尔会通过获得新的感染机制而独立于宿主系统发育而分化。鉴于目前的杆状病毒基因组包含各种抗凋亡基因和假基因，古代杆状病毒有可能具有对抗抗病毒宿主细胞凋亡机制的遗传手段。在这篇综述中，我们提出了杆状病毒多样化的进化方案，其中在宿主昆虫中开发新的抗病毒凋亡机制为产生具有新抗凋亡基因的新杆状病毒谱系提供了必要的压力。