ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Polycipiviridae

Abstract

Polycipiviridae is a family of picorna-like viruses with non-segmented, linear, positive-sense RNA genomes of approximately 10-12 kb. Unusually for viruses within the order Picornavirales, their genomes are polycistronic, with four (or more) consecutive 5'-proximal open reading frames (ORFs) encoding structural (and possibly other) proteins and a long 3' ORF encoding the replication polyprotein. Members of species within the family have all been detected in ants or via arthropod transcriptomic datasets. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the Polycipiviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/polycipiviridae.

Keywords: ICTV Report; Polycipiviridae; taxonomy.

Fig. 1.

Electron micrograph of a virus-like particle purified from Solenopsis invicta worker ants infected with Solenopsis invicta virus 2 (scale bar, 20 nm). Reproduced from [1]; US government material as public domain content.

Fig. 2.

Genome organization of Solenopsis invicta virus 2 (genus Sopolycivirus). The 5′-proximal ORFs encode jelly-roll capsid protein domains (JR; orange), a protein of unknown function (ORF2) and a small predicted transmembrane protein (2b; specific to genus Sopolycivirus). The 3′ ORF encodes helicase (Hel), protease (Pro) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) domains. The genome is polyadenylated and believed to have a viral protein genome-linked (VPg) covalently attached at the 5′ end. Members of the genera Hupolycivirus and Chipolycivirus have similar genome organizations, except that they lack the 2b ORF.