Phenuiviridae Explained

Phenuiviridae is a family of negative-strand RNA viruses in the order Bunyavirales.^[1] Ruminants, camels, humans, and mosquitoes serve as natural hosts. Member genus Phlebovirus is the only genus of the family that has viruses that cause disease in humans (e.g. Rift Valley fever virus)^[2] except Dabie bandavirus.^[3]

Virology

Structure

Members of Phenuiviridae are enveloped viruses with helical capsid morphology. Envelope glycoproteins of these viruses are distributed with icosahedral symmetry (T=12).

Genome

Phenuiviridae is a negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus family.^[4] Its genome is segmented into three pieces: L segment (encoding RNA-dependent RNA polymerase), M segment, and S segment.

Some members of the family have ambisense gene encoding on the S segment (nucleocapsid proteins). The M segment includes envelope glycoproteins encoded in a polyprotein that is cleaved by host proteases.^[5] Multiple different proteins can be encoded on the M segment due to leaky scanning by the ribosome.^[2]

Life cycle

RNA transcripts are capped through cap snatching, but not polyadenylated. Translation is terminated by a hairpin sequence at the end of each RNA transcript.

Taxonomy

The following genera are recognized:^[6]

• Bandavirus
• Beidivirus
• Coguvirus
• Entovirus
• Goukovirus
• Horwuvirus
• Hudivirus
• Hudovirus
• Ixovirus
• Laulavirus
• Lentinuvirus
• Mobuvirus
• Phasivirus
• Phlebovirus
• Pidchovirus
• Rubodvirus
• Tanzavirus
• Tenuivirus
• Uukuvirus
• Wenrivirus

Notes and References

1. Web site: International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). en. 2018-02-02.
2. Web site: Phenuiviridae ~ ViralZone.
3. Yu . Xue-Jie . Liang . Mi-Fang . Zhang . Shou-Yin . Liu . Yan . Li . Jian-Dong . Sun . Yu-Lan . Zhang . Lihong . Zhang . Quan-Fu . Popov . Vsevolod L. . Li . Chuan . Qu . Jing . Li . Qun . Zhang . Yan-Ping . Hai . Rong . Wu . Wei . Wang . Qin . Zhan . Fa-Xian . Wang . Xian-Jun . Kan . Biao . Wang . Shi-Wen . Wan . Kang-Lin . Jing . Huai-Qi . Lu . Jin-Xin . Yin . Wen-Wu . Zhou . Hang . Guan . Xu-Hua . Liu . Jia-Fa . Bi . Zhen-Qiang . Liu . Guo-Hua . Ren . Jun . Wang . Hua . Zhao . Zhuo . Song . Jing-Dong . He . Jin-Rong . Wan . Tao . Zhang . Jing-Shan . Fu . Xiu-Ping . Sun . Li-Na . Dong . Xiao-Ping . Feng . Zi-Jian . Yang . Wei-Zhong . Hong . Tao . Zhang . Yu . Walker . David H. . Wang . Yu . Li . De-Xin . Fever with Thrombocytopenia Associated with a Novel Bunyavirus in China . New England Journal of Medicine . 21 April 2011 . 364 . 16 . 1523–1532 . 10.1056/NEJMoa1010095 . 21410387 . 3113718 .
4. Web site: Phenuiviridae.
5. Tercero . Breanna . Terasaki . Kaori . Nakagawa . Keisuke . Narayanan . Krishna . Makino . Shinji . A strand-specific real-time quantitative RT-PCR assay for distinguishing the genomic and antigenomic RNAs of Rift Valley fever phlebovirus . Journal of Virological Methods . October 2019 . 272 . 113701 . 10.1016/j.jviromet.2019.113701 . 31315022 . 6698219 .
6. Web site: Virus Taxonomy: 2020 Release . International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) . March 2021 . 19 May 2021.