ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Filoviridae 2024

Abstract

Filoviridae is a family of negative-sense RNA viruses with genomes of about 13.1-20.9 kb that infect fish, mammals and reptiles. The filovirid genome is a linear, non-segmented RNA with five canonical open reading frames (ORFs) that encode a nucleoprotein (NP), a polymerase cofactor (VP35), a glycoprotein (GP_1,2), a transcriptional activator (VP30) and a large protein (L) containing an RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) domain. All filovirid genomes encode additional proteins that vary among genera. Several filovirids (e.g., Ebola virus, Marburg virus) are pathogenic for humans and highly virulent. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the family Filoviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/filoviridae.

Keywords: Ebola; Filoviridae; ICTV Report; Marburg virus; filovirid; filovirus; orthoebolavirus; orthomarburgvirus; taxonomy.

Fig. 1.. (a) Scanning and (b) transmission EM images of Marburg virus particles budding from infected Vero E6 cells. Images are colorized for clarity. Courtesy of John G. Bernbaum and Jiro Wada, IRF-Frederick.

Fig. 2.. Filovirid genome. GP, glycoprotein gene; L, large protein gene; NP, nucleoprotein gene; VP30, transcriptional activator gene; VP24, RNP-associated protein gene; VP35, polymerase co-factor gene; VP40, matrix protein gene.