Evolution of double‐stranded DNA viruses of eukaryotes: from bacteriophages to transposons to giant viruses

Diverse eukaryotes including animals and protists are hosts to a broad variety of viruses with double‐stranded (ds) DNA genomes, from the largest known viruses, such as pandoraviruses and mimiviruses, to tiny polyomaviruses. Recent comparative genomic analyses have revealed many evolutionary connections between dsDNA viruses of eukaryotes, bacteriophages, transposable elements, and linear DNA plasmids. These findings provide an evolutionary...