ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Pleolipoviridae

Abstract

Members of the family Pleolipoviridae (termed pleolipoviruses) are pseudo-spherical and pleomorphic archaeal viruses. The enveloped virion is a simple membrane vesicle, which encloses different types of DNA genomes of approximately 7-16 kbp (or kilonucleotides). Typically, virions contain a single type of transmembrane (spike) protein at the envelope and a single type of membrane protein, which is embedded in the envelope and located in the internal side of the membrane. All viruses infect extremely halophilic archaea in the class Halobacteria (phylum Euryarchaeota). Pleolipoviruses have a narrow host range and a persistent, non-lytic life cycle. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of the Pleolipoviridae which is available at www.ictv.global/report/pleolipoviridae.

Keywords: Halorubrum pleomorphic virus 1; ICTV; Pleolipoviridae; taxonomy.

Fig. 1.

Morphology of pleolipovirus virions. (a) Electron micrograph of negatively stained Halorubrum pleomorphic virus 1 particles. (b) A close-up of one Halorubrum pleomorphic virus 1 virion. The arrows point to the spike structures covering the particle surface. Reproduced with permission from Pietilä et al. [5]. Scale bars in (a) and (b), 50 nm (c) Schematic presentation of the pleolipovirus virion.

Fig. 2.

Genome organization of Halorubrum pleomorphic virus 1. Genes encoding structural proteins are coloured black, ORFs in grey. Rep, replication initiation protein; NTPase, nucleoside triphosphate hydrolase. The position of the first nucleotide (1 nt) is indicated.