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. 2017 Dec;98(12):2912-2913.
doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.000959. Epub 2017 Oct 31.

ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Pneumoviridae

Bert Rima  1 , Peter Collins  2 , Andrew Easton  3 , Ron Fouchier  4 , Gael Kurath  5 , Robert A Lamb  6 , Benhur Lee  7 , Andrea Maisner  8 , Paul Rota  9 , Linfa Wang  10 , Ictv Report Consortium
Affiliations

ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Pneumoviridae

Bert Rima et al. J Gen Virol. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

The family Pneumoviridae comprises large enveloped negative-sense RNA viruses. This taxon was formerly a subfamily within the Paramyxoviridae, but was reclassified in 2016 as a family with two genera, Orthopneumovirus and Metapneumovirus. Pneumoviruses infect a range of mammalian species, while some members of the Metapneumovirus genus may also infect birds. Some viruses are specific and pathogenic for humans, such as human respiratory syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus. There are no known vectors for pneumoviruses and transmission is thought to be primarily by aerosol droplets and contact. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of the Pneumoviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/pneumoviridae.

Keywords: ICTV; Pneumoviridae; human metapneumovirus; human respiratory syncytial virus; taxonomy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Electron micrograph of human respiratory syncytial virus. Negative contrast electron micrograph of intact human respiratory syncytial virus (genus Orthopneumovirus) (Courtesy of Kyle Dent, Neil Ranson and John Barr, University of Leeds).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Genome organization of representative members of the family Pneumoviridae. Maps are of genomic RNAs in which each box, drawn approximately to scale, represents a gene encoding a separate mRNA. The M2 mRNA of members of the family Pneumoviridae has two overlapping ORFs, M2-1 and M2-2 (not shown). In the genus Orthopneumovirus, human respiratory syncytial virus has a gene overlap at M2 and L (staggered boxes).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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