Subfamily: Bastillevirinae

Genus: Nitunavirus

Distinguishing features

Genomes vary from 152 to 156 kbp and with 223–252 genes. Terminal repeats have been reported for some nitunavirus genomes. The unique sequence of the genome of Bacillus phage phiNIT1, the exemplar isolate of the representative species Nitunavirus NIT1, is 155 631 bp, containing terminal repeats of about 5103 bp with  219 protein coding sequences (8 are repeated in LTRs so only 211 are unique) and 4 encoded tRNAs. Members of the genus infect Bacillus subtilis.

Species demarcation criteria

Members of the same species are more than 95% identical in genome nucleotide sequence, including the terminal repeat region. Phages with genomes that differ by more than 5% are assigned to different species.