''Hepeviridae'' is a family of

viruses 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 ...

. Human, pig, wild boar, sheep, cow, camel, monkey, some rodents, bats and chickens serve as natural hosts. There are two genera in the family. Diseases associated with this family include: hepatitis; high mortality rate during pregnancy; and avian hepatitis E virus is the cause of hepatitis-splenomegaly (HS) syndrome among chickens.

Taxonomy

The following genera are assigned to the family: * ''

Orthohepevirus ''Orthohepevirus'' is a genus of viruses assigned to the family ''Hepeviridae''. ''Orthohepevirus'' is a fairly isolated viral genus in which the virions are characterized by round, non-enveloped and isometric capsids with a diameter of 27–34 ...

'' * '' Piscihepevirus'' A third genus has been proposed — Insecthepevirus. This proposed genus contains one species — Sogatella furcifera hepe-like virus. A species — Crustacea hepe-like virus 1, has been isolated from a prawn (''

Macrobrachium rosenbergii ''Macrobrachium rosenbergii'', also known as the giant river prawn or giant freshwater prawn, is a commercially important species of Palaemonidae, palaemonid freshwater prawn. It is found throughout the tropical and subtropical areas of the Ind ...

'').

Structure

Viruses in the family ''Hepeviridae'' are non-enveloped, with icosahedral and spherical geometries, and T=1 symmetry. The diameter is around 32-34 nm. Genomes are linear and non-segmented, around 7.2kb in length. The genome has three open reading frames.

Evolution

This has been studied by examining the ORF1 and the capsid proteins. The ORF1 protein appears to be related to members of the ''

Alphatetraviridae ''Alphatetraviridae'' is a family of viruses. Moths and butterflies serve as natural hosts. There are two genera in the family. Infection outcome varies from unapparent to lethal. Taxonomy The following genera are assigned to the family: *''Be ...

'' - a member of the "Alpha-like" super-group of viruses - while the capsid protein is related to that of the chicken astrovirus capsid - a member of the "Picorna-like" supergroup. This suggests that a recombination event at some point in the past between at least two distinct viruses gave rise to the ancestor of this family. This recombination event occurred at the junction of the structural and non structural proteins.

Life cycle

Entry into the host cell is achieved by attachment of the virus to host receptors, which mediates

clathrin-mediated endocytosis Receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME), also called clathrin-mediated endocytosis, is a process by which cells absorb metabolites, hormones, proteins – and in some cases viruses – by the inward budding of the plasma membrane (invagination). This ...

. Replication follows the positive stranded RNA virus replication model. Positive stranded rna virus transcription is the method of transcription. Translation takes place by

leaky scanning Leaky scanning is a mechanism used during the initiation phase of eukaryotic translation that enables regulation of gene expression. During initiation, the small 40S ribosomal subunit (as a 43S PIC) "scans" or moves in a 5' --> 3' direction along ...

. Human, pig, wild boar, monkey, cow, sheep, camel some rodents, bat and chicken serve as the natural host. Transmission routes are

zoonosis A zoonosis (; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite or prion) that has jumped from a non-human (usually a vertebrate) to a human. ...

and

fomite A fomite () or fomes () is any inanimate object that, when contaminated with or exposed to infectious agents (such as pathogenic bacteria, viruses or fungi), can transfer disease to a new host. Transfer of pathogens by fomites A fomite is any ina ...

References

External links

ICTV Online (10th) Report ''Hepeviridae''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5731858 Virus families Riboviria