Family: Globuloviridae

Genus: Alphaglobulovirus

Distinguishing features

Since only one genus is currently recognized, the genus description corresponds to the family description. 

Species demarcation criteria

Viruses from the two species, Pyrobaculum spherical virus and Thermoproteus tenax spherical virus 1, share less than half of their genes (Ahn et al., 2006, Häring et al., 2004). Viruses from the two species in the genus differ in virion size, host range, and in the size and nucleotide sequence of the genome.