PDVLPD

Lytic proteins (LyPs), essential for viral life cycles, mediate cell lysis and drive nutrient and gene flow in ecosystems. Despite advances in understanding viral lysis mechanisms, the LyPs of prokaryotic viruses remain poorly understood at the macroevolutionary scale. Here, we constructed the Prokaryotic DNA Virus Lytic Protein Dataset (PDVLPD), systematically revealing the diversity, distribution patterns and evolutionary drivers of LyPs across viral genomes. Our results demonstrate remarkable sequence and structural variation and suggest that the composition of the lysis system is closely linked to viral genome size, host cell wall structure, and lifestyle, reflecting ecological adaptation. We observed that viral LyPs exhibit extensive sequence variation but retain structural conservation, suggesting a stronger selective pressure on structure that may be driven by the need to adapt and conform with specific cell envelope architectures. Phylogenetic analyses identified a significant co-evolutionary signal among LyPs, alongside extensive horizontal gene transfer of endolysin and holin encoding genes between bacteriophages and bacteria. These analyses also support that viral LyPs likely originated from bacterial sources, with different functional types having multiple independent origins. Moreover, comparative analysis of DNA and RNA virus LyPs demonstrates their diversity and differences across viral lineages. Revealing vast unexplored LyPs diversity, this study highlights their biotechnological potential against multidrug-resistant pathogens.