Viruses: Essential Agents of Life

1. Revolutionary Struggle for Existence: Introduction to Four Intriguing Puzzles in Virus Research
Matti Jalasvuori

2. Quasispecies Dynamics of RNA Viruses
Miguel Angel Martínez, Gloria Martrus, Elena Capel, Mariona Parera, Sandra Franco, Maria Nevot

3. The Origin of Virions and Virocells: The Escape Hypothesis Revisited
Patrick Forterre, Mart Krupovic

4. Scratching the Surface of Biology’s Dark Matter
Merry Youle, Matthew Haynes, Forest Rohwer

5. Virus Universe: Can It Be Constructed from a Limited Number of Viral Architectures
Hanna M. Oksanen, Maija K. Pietilä, Ana Sencilo, Nina S. Atanasova, Elina Roine, Dennis H. Bamford

6. The Addiction Module as a Social Force
Luis P. Villarreal

7. Viral Integration and Consequences on Host Gene Expression
Sébastien Desfarges, Angela Ciuffi

8. Persistent Plant Viruses: Molecular Hitchhikers or Epigenetic Elements?
Marilyn J. Roossinck

9. The Concept of Virus in the Post-Megavirus Era
Jean-Michel Claverie, Chantal Abergel

10. Unpacking the Baggage: Origin and Evolution of Giant Viruses
Jonathan Filée, Michael Chandler

11.
Megavirales Composing a Fourth Domain of Life: Mimiviridae and Marseilleviridae

Philippe Colson, Didier Raoult

12. On Viruses, Bats and Men: A Natural History of Food-Borne Viral Infections
Harald Brüssow

13. LTR Retroelement-Derived Protein-Coding Genes and Vertebrate Evolution
Domitille Chalopin, Marta Tomaszkiewicz, Delphine Galiana, Jean-Nicolas Volff

14. Koala Retrovirus Endogenisation in Action
Rachael E. Tarlinton

15. The Evolutionary Interplay Between Exogenous and Endogenous Sheep Betaretroviruses
Alessia Armezzani, Lita Murphy, Thomas E. Spencer, Massimo Palmarini, Frédérick Arnaud

16. Endogenous Retroviruses and the Epigenome
Andrew B. Conley, I. King Jordan

17. From Viruses to Genes: Syncytins
Philippe Pérot, Pierre-Adrien Bolze, François Mallet

18. Hepatitis G Virus or GBV-C: A Natural Anti-HIV Interfering Virus
Omar Bagasra, Muhammad Sheraz, Donald Gene Pace

19. Salutary Contributions of Viruses to Medicine and Public Health
Stephen T. Abedon

20. From Molecular Entities to Competent Agents: Viral Infection-Derived Consortia Act as Natural Genetic Engineers
Günther Witzany

Keywords: Life Sciences, Life Sciences, general, Virology, Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology, Parasitology, Microbial Genetics and Genomics