ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Rhabdoviridae 2022

Abstract

The family Rhabdoviridae comprises viruses with negative-sense (-) RNA genomes of 10-16 kb. Virions are typically enveloped with bullet-shaped or bacilliform morphology but can also be non-enveloped filaments. Rhabdoviruses infect plants or animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians or fish, as well as arthropods, which serve as single hosts or act as biological vectors for transmission to animals or plants. Rhabdoviruses include important pathogens of humans, livestock, fish or agricultural crops. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the family Rhabdoviridae, which is available at ictv.global/report/rhabdoviridae.

Keywords: ICTV Profile; Rhadboviridae; taxonomy.

Fig. 1.. (a) Negative-contrast electron micrograph of vesicular stomatitis Indiana virus particles. The bar represents 100 nm (courtesy of P. Perrin). (b) Schematic illustration of a rhabdovirus virion and ribonucleocapsid structure. Unravelling of the RNP is solely illustrative to show its association with L and P more clearly (courtesy of P. Le Mercier).

Fig. 2.. Schematic representation of several rhabdovirus genome organizations, exemplifying variations in architecture and the number and location of accessory genes. Arrows indicate the position of long ORFs. Other alternative ORFs occur in some genes; only ORFs (≥180 nt) that appear likely to be expressed are shown. ORFs encoding viroporin (yellow) and movement proteins (blue) are shown.