Large eukaryotic DNA viruses encode ESCRT machinery for membrane remodelling.

The endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) is a membrane-remodelling machinery that mediates membrane constriction and scission. Most enveloped eukaryotic viruses exploit host ESCRT during membrane budding, but none is known to encode ESCRT components. Here, we discovered homologues of two core ESCRT components, ESCRT-III and ATPase Vps4, in mirusviruses and some viruses in the phylum Nucleocytoviricota that infect unicellular eukaryotes. Mirusviruses seem to have hijacked host ESCRT machinery early in their evolution.