title: The recombinative nature of potyviruses: implications for setting up true phylogenetic taxonomy.
abstract: Sequence comparisons reveal that positive-strand RNA viruses not only evolve by divergence from common ancestors but also by interviral recombination. A considerable number of these viruses, exemplified by the family Potyviridae, can in fact, be regarded as successful products of a number of recombination events. It is concluded that the recombinative character of RNA viruses will hamper any attempt to set up a true phylogenetic taxonomy. It is advisable, therefore, to avoid the introduction of any taxon higher-than-family in virus taxonomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goldbach
mesh_terms: D010849:Picornaviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D011995:Recombination, Genetic