Family: Phasmaviridae

Genus: Cicadellivirus

Distinguishing features

Scaphoideus titanus bunya-like virus 1 (StHV1) is the only classified cicadellivirus. StHV1 is associated with hemipteran insects (Ottati et al., 2020).

Virion

Virions are unknown.

Nucleic acid

Cicadelliviruses have tri-segmented negative-sense RNA genomes of about 13.6 kb (small [S] segment: 1.5 kb; medium [M] segment: 4.4 kb; large [L] segment: 7.7 kb) (Ottati et al., 2020).

Proteins

Based on sequence data, cicadelliviruses likely express three structural proteins: nucleoprotein (N), glycoprotein precursor (GPC), and large protein (L) (Ottati et al., 2020).

Genome organization and replication

The S segment encodes N, the M segment encodes GPC, and the L segment encodes L protein (Ottati et al., 2020) (Figure 1 Cicadellivirus). Cicadellivirus genomic segments are expected, by analogy with other bunyaviricetes, to assume circular forms as ribonucleoprotein complexes within the virion via non-covalent binding of complementary and conserved 3′- and 5′-terminal sequences.

Figure 1 Cicadellivirus. Schematic representation of cicadellivirus genome organization. L: gene encoding L protein; GPC, gene encoding GPC; N: gene encoding N protein.

Biology

Cicadelliviruses are associated with American grapevine leafhopper (cicadellid Scaphoideus titanus Ball, 1932) in the USA (Ottati et al., 2020). Replication-competent cicadellivirus isolates have not yet been obtained, and hence cicadellivirus biology remains to be elucidated.

Species demarcation criteria

Not applicable as the genus includes only a single species.