Topic summary
Polyomavirus
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Polyomaviridae.
Taxonomy
The polyomaviruses are members of group I (dsDNA viruses). The classification of polyomaviruses has been the subject of several proposed revisions as new members of the group are discovered. Formerly, polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses, which share many structural features but have very different genomic organizations, were classified together in the now-obsolete family Papovaviridae. (The name Papovaviridae derived from three abbreviations: Pa for Papillomavirus, Po for Polyomavirus, and Va for "vacuolating.") The polyomaviruses were divided into three major clades (that is, genetically related groups): the SV40 clade, the avian clade, and the murine polyomavirus clade.