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

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 ^[1]. The type species is Pseudomonas phage ?6, but there are many other members of this family. ?7, ?8, ?9, ?10, ?11, ?12 and ?13 have been identified and named ^[2], but other cystoviruses have also been isolated ^[1].

Members of the Cystoviridae appear to be most closely related to the Reoviridae ^[3], 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.

Notes

1. ↑ ^{a b} 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
2. ↑ 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
3. ↑ 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

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