Family: Nyamiviridae

Ralf G. Dietzgen, Andrew E. Firth, Dàohóng Jiāng, Sandra Junglen, Hideki Kondo, Jens H. Kuhn, Sofia Paraskevopoulou and Nikos Vasilakis

Family: Pneumoviridae

Genus: Metapneumovirus

Distinguishing features

Members of the genus Metapneumovirus  possess 8 genes. They lack the two promoter proximal NS1 and NS2 genes found in the members of the genus Orthopneumovirus. The gene order is N-P-M-F-M2-SH-G-L. Alignment of the L proteins of the metapneumoviruses shows a moderate level of conservation between the human and avian viruses. Their genome length is smaller than that of the members of the other genus. 

Family: Pneumoviridae

Genus: Orthopneumovirus

Distinguishing features

Members of the genus Orthopneumovirus possess 10 genes including two NS1 and NS2 which are promoter proximal (i.e. before) the N gene. The gene order is NS1-NS2-N-P-M-SH-G-F-M2-L. Alignments of the L proteins show moderate conservation of the sequences between the human, murine, bovine and ovine viruses. Their genome length is larger than that of the members of the other genus. 

Resources: Pneumoviridae

Sequence alignments and tree files:

Figure 3. Pneumoviridae:

Alignment file (FASTA format)

Tree file (Newick format)

Further reading: Pneumoviridae

Collins, P. L. & Karron, R. A. (2013).  Respiratory syncytial virus and metapneumovirus. In Fields Virology, sixth edn, pp. 1086–1123. Edited by D. M. Knipe, P. M. Howley, J. I. Cohen, D. E. Griffin, R. A. Lamb, M. A. Martin, V. R. Racaniello & B. Roizman. Philadelphia: Lippincott Willams&Wilkins. 

Authors: Pneumoviridae

Bert Rima*
Centre for Experimental Medicine,
School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences,
The Queen's University of Belfast,
Belfast, BT9 7BL
Northern Ireland,
UK
E-mail: b.rima@qub.ac.uk

References: Pneumoviridae

Bakker, S. E., Duquerroy, S., Galloux, M., Loney, C., Conner, E., Eleouet, J. F., Rey, F. A. & Bhella, D. (2013).  The respiratory syncytial virus nucleoprotein-RNA complex forms a left-handed helical nucleocapsid. J Gen Virol 94, 1734-1738. [PubMed]

Citation: Pneumoviridae

A summary of this ICTV Report chapter has been published as an ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile article in the Journal of General Virology, and should be cited when referencing this online chapter as follows:

Family: Pneumoviridae

Bert Rima​, Peter Collins​, Andrew Easton, Ron Fouchier, Gael Kurath, Robert A. Lamb, Benhur Lee​, Andrea Maisner​, Paul Rota and Linfa Wang

Family: Sedoreoviridae

Genus: Seadornavirus

Distinguishing features

The seadornavirus genome consists of 12 segments of dsRNA. During replication, virions are found in the cell cytoplasm. Viruses are transmitted to vertebrate hosts by mosquito vectors.