Archaeal Viruses, Not Archaeal Phages: An Archaeological Dig

Figure 1

Various names that have been used to generally describe archaeal viruses as well as subsets of those viruses (e.g., “Halophage”). A sampling of those terms along with what to the best of our knowledge are their dates of introduction into the literature are presented in a timeline format. Note in particular the diversity as well as, even over the last decade, an apparently ongoing lack of consensus. References for first use, again to the best of our knowledge, are as follows: Bacteriophage (and Phage) [11], Halophage [12], Archaebacterial phage [13], Virus [13] (see, however, also [14]), Archaebacterial virus [15], Archaebacteriophage [16], Archaeobacteriophage [17], Archaeal phage [18], Archaeophage [19], Archaeal virus [20], Archaebacterial bacteriophage [21], Archaea virus [22], Archaevirus [23], Archaephage [24], Archaeavirus [25], Archael virus [26] (also found as a typo in a 1999 publication [27]), Archeal virus [28], Archeophage [29], Archaeovirus [30, 31], Archeovirus [32], Archaeon virus [33], Archae virus [34], and Archaean virus [35].