Ampullaviridae
From MicrobeWiki, the student-edited microbiology resource
Baltimore Classification
Higher order taxa
Genera
Description and Significance
Ampullaviridae gets its name from the Latin "ampulla" for bottle because of the unique bottle-shaped morphology of the virions. Such a shape had not been previously observed in the viral world. In the Ampullaviridae, the complex morphotype of asymmetric virions, lacking elements of regular helical symmetry, with two completely different structures at each end and an envelope encasing a funnel-shaped core suggests that such a complex morphotype facilitates infection.
