ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Bornaviridae

Abstract

Members of the family Bornaviridae produce enveloped virions containing a linear negative-sense non-segmented RNA genome of about 9 kb. Bornaviruses are found in mammals, birds, reptiles and fish. The most-studied viruses with public health and veterinary impact are Borna disease virus 1 and variegated squirrel bornavirus 1, both of which cause fatal encephalitis in humans. Several orthobornaviruses cause neurological and intestinal disorders in birds, mostly parrots. Endogenous bornavirus-like sequences occur in the genomes of various animals. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the family Bornaviridae, which is available at ictv.global/report/bornaviridae.

Keywords: Borna disease virus; Bornaviridae; Carbovirus; Cultervirus; ICTV Report; Mononegavirales; Orthobornavirus; bornavirus.

Fig. 1.

(a) Electron micrograph of a Borna disease virus 1 particle. Scale bar, 100 nm. Courtesy of Dr M. Eickmann. (b) Illustration of an orthobornavirus particle. Grey - bilaminar lipid envelope.

Fig. 2.

Orthobornavirus genome organization and transcripts. Dashed lines - introns. ORFs (depicted on the negative-sense strand) encode N, nucleoprotein; X, accessory protein; P, phosphoprotein; M, matrix protein; G, glycoprotein; L, large protein containing an RdRP domain. S, transcription initiation site; T, transcription termination site.