''Aspiviridae'', formerly ''Ophioviridae'', is a family of segmented negative-strand RNA viruses which infect

plants 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 exclude ...

. Member viruses are characterized by an elongated and highly filamentous and flexible nucleocapsid with

helical Helical may refer to: * Helix, the mathematical concept for the shape * Helical engine, a proposed spacecraft propulsion drive * Helical spring, a coilspring * Helical plc, a British property company, once a maker of steel bar stock * Helicoil A t ...

symmetry. It is a

monotypic taxon In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group ( taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

containing only one genus, ''Ophiovirus''. ''Aspiviridae'' is also the only family in the order ''Serpentovirales'', which in turn is the only order in the class ''Milneviricetes''.

History

The name ''Aspiviridae'' derives from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

(

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

viper The Viperidae (vipers) are a family of snakes found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipers), hinged fangs tha ...

), referring to the shape, along with the suffix for a virus family ''-viridae''. ''Ophiovirus'' derives from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''ophi''s, “snake”, with –''virus'' the suffix for a virus genus. Likewise, ''Serpentovirales'' is from "

serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...

" with ''-virales'' the suffix for a virus order. ''Milneviricetes'' is in honor of Robert G. Milne, the last author on the first paper describing ophioviruses.

Virology

Structure

The protein

capsid A capsid is the protein shell of a virus, enclosing its genetic material. It consists of several oligomeric (repeating) structural subunits made of protein called protomers. The observable 3-dimensional morphological subunits, which may or ma ...

is non-

envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a sh ...

d and has a constant diameter of 1500–2500 nm and a width of 3 nm, or 9 nm. The capsids form kinked circles, which can collapse to form linear duplex structures, much like a spring.

Genome

Member viruses have segmented,

negative-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 complementarity (molecular biology), complement in specifying a sequence of am ...

, single-stranded RNA genomes. The entire

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding g ...

is 11000–12000

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 biomolecule ...

s long.ICTVdB Management (2006). 00.094.0.01. Ophiovirus. In: ICTVdB—The Universal Virus Database, version 4. Büchen-Osmond, C. (Ed),

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, New York, USA.

Taxonomy

The family has one genus, ''Ophiovirus'', which has seven recognized species. Members of both the family and the genus are referred to as ophioviruses. * Family: ''Aspiviridae'' **Genus: ''Ophiovirus'' ***Species: ****'' Blueberry mosaic associated ophiovirus'' ****'' Citrus psorosis ophiovirus'' ****'' Freesia sneak ophiovirus'' ****'' Lettuce ring necrosis ophiovirus'' ****'' Mirafiori lettuce big-vein ophiovirus'' ****'' Ranunculus white mottle ophiovirus'' ****'' Tulip mild mottle mosaic ophiovirus''

References

External links

ICTV Online Report Ophioviridae

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55116464, from2=Q7097974, from3=Q18811658, from4=Q57742139, from5=Q57739566 Virus families