%0 Journal Article %A Ajith Harish %A Aare Abroi %A Julian Gough %A Charles Kurland %T Did viruses evolve as a distinct supergroup from common ancestors of cells? %D 2016 %R 10.1101/049171 %J bioRxiv %P 049171 %X The evolutionary origins of viruses according to marker gene phylogenies, as well as their relationships to the ancestors of host cells remains unclear. In a recent article Nasir and Caetano-Anollés reported that their genome-scale phylogenetic analyses identify an ancient origin of the “viral supergroup” (Nasir et al (2015) A phylogenomic data-driven exploration of viral origins and evolution. Science Advances, 1(8):e1500527). It suggests that viruses and host cells evolved independently from a universal common ancestor. Examination of their data and phylogenetic methods indicates that systematic errors likely affected the results. Reanalysis of the data with additional tests shows that small-genome attraction artifacts distort their phylogenomic analyses. These new results indicate that their suggestion of a distinct ancestry of the viral supergroup is not well supported by the evidence. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2016/04/18/049171.full.pdf