Rudiviridae

Baltimore Classification

Higher order taxa

Viruses; dsDNA viruses, no RNA stage; Rudiviridae

Genera

Rudivirus

Description and Significance

Rudiviridae is a family of recently discovered viruses which infect Crenarchaeota. Rudiviruses were first isolated from acidic hot springs in Iceland. (sources: Ortmann et al., Rice et al.)

Genome Structure

The Rudivirus genome is non-segmented and contains a molecule of linear, double-stranded DNA. The genome is 32,312- 35,502 nucleotides long. The DNA forms a superhelix with a single basic 15.8-kD binding protein. The two strands of DNA are covalently linked to form a continuous polynucleotide chain. The DNA has three tail fibers at the end. (sources: ICTVdB, Prangishvili et al., Peng et al.)

Virion Structure of a Rudivirus

Rudivirus virions consist of a capsid. The capsid is a non-enveloped, elongated, rigid rod shape which exhibits icosahedral symmetry. The virion particles are 600-900 nm in length and 23 nm in width. Rudivirus virions resemble some RNA plant virus virions. (sources: ICTVdB, Ortmann et al.)

Viral Ecology & Pathology

Rudiviruses infect only Sulfolobus and Acidianus species. (source: Ortmann et al.)

References

ICTVdB - The Universal Virus Database, version 4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/ICTVdB/

Ortmann et al. "Hot crenarchaeal viruses reveal deep evolutionary connections." Nature Reviews Microbiology 4 (2006): 520-528.

Peng et al. "Sequences and Replication of Genomes of the Archaeal Rudiviruses SIRV1 and SIRV2: Relationships to the Archaeal Lipothrixvirus SIFV and Some Eukaryal Viruses." Virology 29.2 (2001): 226-234.

Prangishvili et al. "A Novel Virus Family, the Rudiviridae: Structure, Virus-Host Interactions, and Genome Variability of the Sulfolobus Viruses SIRV1 and SIRV2." Genetics 152 (1999): 1387-1396.

Rice et al. "Viruses from extreme thermal environments." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98.23 (2001): 13341-13345.