The Common Ancestor of Archaea and Eukarya Was Not an Archaeon

Figure 5

Schematic phylogenies of RNA polymerases. The RNA polymerase tree has been drawn combining and interpreting results from several papers [54, 60, 78, 79]. The position of the Nudivirus RNA polymerase is extrapolated from its high divergence with other homologous RNA polymerases (indicated by dotted lines). An update phylogeny would be welcome but would not change the take-home message, the puzzling mixture of cellular and viral enzymes, suggesting several ancient transfers between viruses and cells.