Viral proteins originated de novo by overprinting can be identified by codon usage: application to the "gene nursery" of Deltaretroviruses.

A well-known mechanism through which new protein-coding genes originate is by modification of pre-existing genes, e.g. by duplication or horizontal transfer. In contrast, many viruses generate protein-coding genes de novo, via the overprinting of a new reading frame onto an existing ("ancestral...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Angelo Pavesi, Gkikas Magiorkinis, David G Karlin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
Series:PLoS Computational Biology
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3744397?pdf=render