''Botourmiaviridae'' is a family of
positive-strand RNA virus
Positive-strand RNA viruses (+ssRNA viruses) are a group of related viruses that have positive-sense, single-stranded genomes made of ribonucleic acid. The positive-sense genome can act as messenger RNA (mRNA) and can be directly translated int ...
es which infect
plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
s and
fungi
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...
. The family includes four genera: ''
Ourmiavirus'', ''Botoulivirus'', ''Magoulivirus'' and ''Scleroulivirus''. Members of genus ''Ourmiavirus'' infect plants and the other genera infect fungi. The member
virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
es have genomes which range from 2900 to 4800
nucleotide
Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules wi ...
s.
Structure
Ourmiaviruses are the only members of the family that have a viral structure. The other members are naked and have no
viral envelope
A viral envelope is the outermost layer of many types of viruses. It protects the genetic material in their life cycle when traveling between host cells. Not all viruses have envelopes.
Numerous human pathogenic viruses in circulation are encase ...
or capsid. Ourmiaviruses are
plant virus
Plant viruses are viruses that affect plants. Like all other viruses, plant viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that do not have the molecular machinery to replicate without a host. Plant viruses can be pathogenic to higher plants.
M ...
es that have a
bacilliform virion composed of a single capsid protein. The virions have a series of discrete lengths from 30 to 62 nm.
[
]
Genome
Members of the family ''Botourmiaviridae'' have positive-sense
In molecular biology and genetics, the sense of a nucleic acid molecule, particularly of a strand of DNA or RNA, refers to the nature of the roles of the strand and its complement in specifying a sequence of amino acids. Depending on the context, ...
, single-stranded RNA
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...
genomes. Contrary to the hosts they infect (plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
s and fungus
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...
), their genome is concise and has few redundancies. The genome of the genus ''Ourmiavirus'' has three segments that encode the capside protein (CP), movement protein
In order for a virus to infect a plant, it must be able to move between cells so it can spread throughout the plant. Plant cell walls make this moving/spreading quite difficult and therefore, for this to occur, movement proteins must be present. A ...
(MP), and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase
RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) or RNA replicase is an enzyme that catalyzes the replication of RNA from an RNA template. Specifically, it catalyzes synthesis of the RNA strand complementary to a given RNA template. This is in contrast to t ...
(RdRp). The length of the genome is around 4800 nucleotides. The genomes of the other three genera of the family are nonsegmented and have lengths which range from 2000 to 3200 nucleotides. The genomes of these fungal viruses only encode an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and have no structural proteins.[
]
Taxonomy
The family has six genera:
*'' Botoulivirus''
*'' Magoulivirus''
*'' Ourmiavirus''
*'' Penoulivirus''
*'' Rhizoulivirus''
*'' Scleroulivirus''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q69848575
Viruses
Virus families