What does "protovirus" mean?

A DNA sequence capable of mutating into an oncogenic virus, proposed as a hypothesis to explain the origin of ribodeoxyviruses as arising from normal cellular components.

Protovirus

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A DNA sequence capable of mutating into an oncogenic virus, proposed as a hypothesis to explain the origin of ribodeoxyviruses as arising from normal cellular components.

Etymology

From proto- + virus.

Related phrases

dna sequence

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.