Rhabdoviridae

Rhabdoviruses are viruses belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae, which is in the order Mononegavirales. Rhabdoviruses infect a broad range of hosts throughout the animal and plant kingdom. Animal rhabdoviruses infect insects, fish, and mammals, including humans.

Table of contents

1 The Viruses 2 Prototypical Rhabdoviruses 3 See also 4 Further reading

The Viruses

Rhabdoviruses carry their genetic material in the form of negative-sense single-stranded RNA. They typically carry genes for five proteins: large protein (L), glycoprotein (G), nucleoprotein (N), nonstructural protein (NS), and matrix protein (M). Rhabdoviruses that infect vertebrates are bullet-shaped.

Prototypical Rhabdoviruses

The prototypical and best studied rhabdovirus is vesicular stomatitis virus. Since it is harmless to humans and easy to grow in the laboratory, it is a preferred model system to study the biology of Rhabdoviruses, and Mononegavirales in general. The mammalian disease Rabies is also caused by a rhabdovirus.

See also

• Viral classification
• RNA virus

Further reading

• J.K. Rose and M.A. Whitt (2001). Rhabdoviridae: The viruses and their replication. In: D.M. Knipe and P.M. Howley, ed., Field's Virology, vol. 1, pp. 1221-1244. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, 4th edition.
• R.R. Wagner, ed. (1987). The Rhabdoviruses. Plenum Press, New York.