Lyssavirus
| Lyssavirus | |
|---|---|
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| Colored transmission electron micrograph of Australian bat lyssavirus. The bullet-like objects are the virions, and some of them are budding off from a cell. | |
| Virus classification | |
| Group: | Group V ((−)ssRNA) |
| Order: | Mononegavirales |
| Family: | Rhabdoviridae |
| Genus: | Lyssavirus |
| Type species | |
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Rabies lyssavirus |
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| Species | |
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Lyssavirus is a genus of RNA viruses in the family Rhabdoviridae, order Mononegavirales. Humans, mammals, and vertebrates serve as natural hosts. The genus Lyssavirus (from Lyssa, the Greek goddess of madness, rage, and frenzy) includes the rabies virus traditionally associated with that disease.
Table legend: "*" denotes type species.
Lyssavirions are enveloped, with bullet shaped geometries. These virions are about 75 nm wide and 180 nm long. Lyssavirions have helical symmetry, so their infectious particles are approximately cylindrical in shape. This is typical of plant-infecting viruses. Virions of human-infecting viruses more commonly have cubic symmetry and take shapes approximating regular polyhedra.
The structure consists of a spiked outer envelope, a middle region consisting of matrix protein M, and an inner ribonucleocapsid complex region, consisting of the genome associated with other proteins.
Lyssavirus genomes consist of a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA molecule that encodes five viral proteins: polymerase L, matrix protein M, phosphoprotein P, nucleoprotein N, and glycoprotein G. Genomes are linear, around 11kb in length.
Based on recent phylogenetic evidence, lyssaviruses have been categorized into seven major species. In addition, five more species have recently been discovered: West Caucasian bat virus, Aravan virus, Khujand virus, Irkut virus and Shimoni bat virus. The major species (genotypes) include: rabies virus (genotype 1); Lagos bat virus (genotype 2); Mokola virus (genotype 3); Duvenhage virus (genotype 4); European Bat lyssaviruses type 1 and 2 (genotypes 5 and 6); and Australian bat lyssavirus (genotype 7).
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