Viral Biorealm
Educators: You may assign Microbial Biorealm page creation and editing as a project for your students. We create a template page for your assignment, which you may edit to meet your needs. See for example the pages created by the following classes:
- BIMM120 Bacteriology, Dr. Rachel Larsen and Dr. Kit Pogliano, University of California at San Diego
- BI 230 Microbiology, Dr. Kirk Bartholomew, Sacred Heart University
- MB 103 Introductory Topics in Microbiology, James Brown, NC State University (student pages in progress)
Your students receive individual passwords. Assessment and "grading" are up to you; after your class is over, we review pages for our standards. Students of all levels, from first-year to graduate students, have contributed pages to our site.
Advisor: Joan Slonczewski, Biology Dept, Kenyon College.
Funding: HHMI award to Kenyon College, 2004
Student Editors:
Molly Schlemmer '08, Shrochis Karki '09, Daniel Barich '05, Ryotaro Tashiro '09
For alphabetical listing, see Taxonomy Index. New virus contributions are welcome.
To become an editor, you can request a free account.
Virus Classification: The Baltimore System
Group I. Double-stranded DNA viruses
Replicate using host or viral DNA polymerase.
Non-enveloped bacteriophages:
Archaeal viruses:
- Ampullaviridae
- Bicaudaviridae
- Fuselloviridae
- Globuloviridae
- Guttaviridae
- Lipothrixviridae
- Rudiviridae
Non-enveloped animal viruses:
Enveloped animal viruses:
Group II. Single-stranded DNA
Genome consists of (+) sense DNA. Requires a host DNA polymerase to generate the complementary strand. Non-enveloped.
Non-enveloped bacteriophages:
Non-enveloped animal viruses:
- Parvoviridae
- Circoviridae
Non-enveloped plant viruses:
Group III. Double-stranded RNA
Requires viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase; usually packages the polymerase before exiting host cell.
Non-segmented, enveloped, bacteriophage:
Segmented, non-enveloped, animal and plant hosts:
Group IV. (+) Sense single-stranded RNA viruses
Require viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase to generate (-) template for progeny (+) genome. Usually non-segmented.
Non-enveloped bacteriophages:
Non-enveloped animal and plant viruses:
Enveloped animal and plant viruses:
- Coronaviridae
- Flaviviridae
- Togaviridae
Group V. (-) Sense single-stranded RNA viruses
Require viral RNA-dependent RNA transcriptase.
Segmented, enveloped:
Nonsegmented, enveloped:
Segmented (+/-) strand enveloped:
Group VI. RNA Reverse Transcribing Viruses (Retroviruses)
Require viral reverse transcriptase to generate DNA copy for integration into host chromosome. Package transcriptase before exiting host cell.
- Retroviridae
- Lentivirus
Group VII. DNA Reverse Transcribing Viruses (Pararetroviruses)
DNA is transcribed to RNA intermediate; reverse-transcribed to DNA. Infects plant cells, which have cytoplasmic reverse transcriptase; or package a viral reverse transcriptase.
Non-enveloped plant viruses:
Enveloped animal viruses:
- Hepadnaviridae
- Orthohepadnavirus
