Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec;102(12):001712.
doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.001712.

ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Retroviridae 2021

John Coffin  1 , Jonas Blomberg  2 , Hung Fan  3 , Robert Gifford  4 , Theodora Hatziioannou  5 , Dirk Lindemann  6 , Jens Mayer  7 , Jonathan Stoye  8 , Michael Tristem  9 , Welkin Johnson  10 , Ictv Report Consortium
Affiliations

ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Retroviridae 2021

John Coffin et al. J Gen Virol. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Viruses in the family Retroviridae are found in a wide variety of vertebrate hosts. Enveloped virions are 80-100 nm in diameter with an inner core containing the viral genome and replicative enzymes. Core morphology is often characteristic for viruses within the same genus. Replication involves reverse transcription and integration into host cell DNA, resulting in a provirus. Integration into germline cells can result in a heritable provirus known as an endogenous retrovirus. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the family Retroviridae, which is available at ictv.global/report/retroviridae.

Keywords: AIDS; HIV; ICTV Report; Retroviridae; taxonomy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
(a) Schematic diagram of a retrovirus particle (courtesy of B. Lawhorn). SU, surface and TM, transmembrane subunits of the envelope protein; RT, reverse transcriptase; IN, integrase; NC, nucleocapsid; CA, capsid; MA, matrix; PR, protease. (b) Transmission electron micrograph of a murine leukemia virus particle. Credit M. Gonda, reproduced from [4], by permission of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Genome organization of representatives of the subfamilies (a) Orthoretrovirinae and (b) Spumaretrovirinae. Arrowhead indicates an internal promoter found in the foamy virus genome.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Goff SP. In: Fields Virology: Knipe DM, Howley PM, editors. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; 2013. Retroviridae ; pp. 1424–1473.
    1. Lindemann D, Steffen I, Pöhlmann S. Cellular entry of retroviruses. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2013;790:128–149. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-7651-1_7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Overbaugh J, Miller AD, Eiden MV. Receptors and entry cofactors for retroviruses include single and multiple transmembrane-spanning proteins as well as newly described glycophosphatidylinositol-anchored and secreted proteins. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2001;65:371–389. doi: 10.1128/MMBR.65.3.371-389.2001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coffin JM, Hughes SH, Varmus HE. Retroviruses. Cold Spring Harbor (NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 1997. - PubMed
    1. Lesbats P, Engelman AN, Cherepanov P. Retroviral DNA Integration. Chem Rev. 2016;116:12730–12757. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00125. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types