Changes to virus taxonomy and the Statutes ratified by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (2020)

Peter J Walker (1) , Stuart G Siddell (2) , Elliot J Lefkowitz (3) , Arcady R Mushegian (4) , Evelien M Adriaenssens (5) , Donald M Dempsey (3) , Bas E Dutilh (6) , Balázs Harrach (7) , Robert L Harrison (8) , R Curtis Hendrickson (3) , Sandra Junglen (9) , Nick J Knowles (8) , Andrew M Kropinski (10) , Mart Krupovic (11) , Jens H Kuhn (12) , Max Nibert (13) , Richard J Orton (14) , Luisa Rubino (15) , Sead Sabanadzovic (16) , Peter Simmonds (17) , Donald B Smith (17) , Arvind Varsani (18) , Francisco Murilo Zerbini (18) , Andrew J. Davison (14, 19)

1 University of Queensland [Brisbane]
2 University of Bristol [Bristol]
3 UAB - University of Alabama at Birmingham [ Birmingham]
4 MCB - Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences [Alexandria, USA]
5 Quadram Institute
6 Utrecht University [Utrecht]
7 MTA - Hungarian Academy of Sciences
8 USDA - United States Department of Agriculture
9 Humboldt University Of Berlin
10 The Pirbright Institute
11 Virologie des archées - Archaeal Virology
12 NIH - National Institutes of Health [Bethesda]
13 HMS - Harvard Medical School [Boston]
14 MRC - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
15 CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
16 Mississippi State University [Mississippi]
17 University of Oxford
18 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
19 UFV - Universidade Federal de Viçosa = Federal University of Viçosa

This article reports the changes to virus classification and taxonomy approved and ratified by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) in March 2020. The entire ICTV was invited to vote on 206 taxonomic proposals approved by the ICTV Executive Committee at its meeting in July 2019, as well as on the proposed revision of the ICTV Statutes. All proposals and the revision of the Statutes were approved by an absolute majority of the ICTV voting membership. Of note, ICTV has approved a proposal that extends the previously established realm Riboviria to encompass nearly all RNA viruses and reverse-transcribing viruses, and approved three separate proposals to establish three realms for viruses with DNA genomes.

Domains: Virology

Peter J Walker, Stuart G Siddell, Elliot J Lefkowitz, Arcady R Mushegian, Evelien M Adriaenssens, et al.. Changes to virus taxonomy and the Statutes ratified by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (2020). Archives of Virology, 2020, 165 (11), pp.2737-2748. ⟨10.1007/s00705-020-04752-x⟩. ⟨pasteur-03112960⟩