Taxonomic reorganization of family Partitiviridae and other recent progress in partitivirus research.
Phylogenetic analyses have prompted a taxonomic reorganization of family Partitiviridae (encapsidated, bisegmented dsRNA viruses that infect plants, fungi, or protozoa), the focus of this review. After a brief introduction to partitiviruses, the taxonomic changes are discussed, including replacement of former genera Partitivirus, Alphacryptovirus, and Betacryptovirus, with new genera Alphapartitivirus, Betapartitivirus, Gammapartitivirus, and Deltapartitivirus, as well as redistribution of species among these new genera. To round out the review, other recent progress of note in partitivirus research is summarized, including discoveries of novel partitivirus sequences by metagenomic approaches and mining of sequence databases, determinations of fungal partitivirus particle structures, demonstrations of fungal partitivirus transmission to new fungal host species, evidence for other aspects of partitivirus-host interactions and host effects, and identification of other fungal or plant viruses with some similarities to partitiviruses. Some outstanding questions are also discussed.
Department of Microbiology & Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: mnibert@hms.harvard.edu.
Max L
ML
Nibert
Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA.
Said A
SA
Ghabrial
Department of Phytomedicine, Institute of Horticultural Production Systems, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover D-30419, Germany.
Edgar
E
Maiss
Department of Phytomedicine, Institute of Horticultural Production Systems, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover D-30419, Germany.
Till
T
Lesker
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Research Unit, Vantaa, Finland.
Eeva J
EJ
Vainio
State Key Lab of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, PR China.
Daohong
D
Jiang
Institute of Plant Science & Resources, Okayama University, Kurashiki, Japan.
Nobuhiro
N
Suzuki
D016841:Amoebida / Q000821:virology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005658:Fungi / Q000821:virology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010944:Plants / Q000821:virology*; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017385:Sequence Homology; D014773:Virology / Q000639:trends
Cryptovirus; Fungal virus; Partitiviridae; Partitivirus; Plant virus; Protozoal virus; Virus taxonomy; dsRNA virus