Adnaviria: a New Realm for Archaeal Filamentous Viruses with Linear A-Form Double-Stranded DNA Genomes

Mart Krupovic (1) , Jens H Kuhn (2) , Fengbin Wang (3) , Diana P Baquero (1) , Valerian V Dolja (4) , Edward H Egelman (3) , David Prangishvili (1) , Eugene V Koonin (5)

1 Virologie des archées - Archaeal Virology
2 NIAID-NIH - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [Bethesda]
3 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics [Charlottesville]
4 Department of Botany and Plant Pathology
5 NLM - National Library of Medicine

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) has recently adopted a comprehensive, hierarchical system of virus taxa. The highest ranks in this hierarchy are realms, each of which is considered monophyletic but apparently originated independently of other realms. Here, we announce the creation of a new realm, Adnaviria, which unifies archaeal filamentous viruses with linear A-form double-stranded DNA genomes and characteristic major capsid proteins unrelated to those encoded by other known viruses.

Keywords: A-form DNA; Ligamenvirales; Tokiviricetes; Rudiviridae; Lipothrixviridae; Tristromaviridae; hyperthermophilic archaea; virus evolution; virus classification; virus taxonomy; International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV); major capsid protein; virus structure and assembly

Domains: Virology

Mart Krupovic, Jens H Kuhn, Fengbin Wang, Diana P Baquero, Valerian V Dolja, et al.. Adnaviria: a New Realm for Archaeal Filamentous Viruses with Linear A-Form Double-Stranded DNA Genomes. Journal of Virology, 2021, 95 (15), pp.e00673-21. ⟨10.1128/JVI.00673-21⟩. ⟨pasteur-03284792⟩