CYSTOVIRUS

(Redirected from Cystoviridae)

'''Cystovirus''' is a genus of dsRNA virus, which infect certain Gram negative bacteria.

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Characteristics

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Characteristics

All cystoviruses are distinguished by their three strands (analogous to chromosomes) of dsRNA, totalling ~14 kb in length and their protein and lipid outer layer. No other bacteriophage have any lipid in their outer coat, though the ''Tectiviridae'' and the ''Corticoviridae'' have lipids within their capsids.
Most identified cystoviruses infect ''Pseudomonas'' species, but this is likely biased due to the method of screening and enrichment Silander, O. K., D. M. Weinreich, K. M. Wright, K. J. O'Keefe, C. U. Rang, P. E. Turner, and L. C. 2005. Widespread genetic exchange among terrestrial bacteriophages. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:19009-19014. full text. The type species is ''Pseudomonas phage Φ6'', but there are many other members of this family. Φ7, Φ8, Φ9, Φ10, Φ11, Φ12 and Φ13 have been identified and named Mindich, L., X. Qiao, J. Qiao, S. Onodera, M. Romantschuk, and D. Hoogstraten. 1999. Isolation of additional bacteriophages with genomes of segmented double-stranded RNA. J. Bacteriol. 181:4505-4508. full text, but other cystoviruses have also been isolated Silander, O. K., D. M. Weinreich, K. M. Wright, K. J. O'Keefe, C. U. Rang, P. E. Turner, and L. C. 2005. Widespread genetic exchange among terrestrial bacteriophages. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:19009-19014. full text.
Members of the ''Cystoviridae'' appear to be most closely related to the ''Reoviridae'' Butcher, S. J., T. Dokland, P. M. Ojala, D. H. Bamford, and S. D. Fuller. 1997. Intermediates in the assembly pathway of the double-stranded RNA virus phi6. EMBO J. 16:4477-4487. full text, but also share homology with the ''Totiviridae''. Cystoviruses are the only bacteriophage that are more closely related to viruses of eukaryotes than to other phage.

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