Elsevier

Seminars in Virology

Volume 8, Issue 1, February 1997, Pages 33-47
Seminars in Virology

Regular Article
The Genome Organization of the Nidovirales: Similarities and Differences between Arteri-, Toro-, and Coronaviruses

https://doi.org/10.1006/smvy.1997.0104 Get rights and content

Abstract

Viruses in the families Arteriviridae and Coronaviridae have enveloped virions which contain nonsegmented, positive-stranded RNA, but the constituent genera differ markedly in genetic complexity and virion structure. Nevertheless, there are striking resemblances among the viruses in the organization and expression of their genomes, and sequence conservation among the polymerase polyproteins strongly suggests that they have a common ancestry. On this basis, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses recently established a new order, Nidovirales, to contain the two families. Here, the common traits and distinguishing features of the Nidovirales are reviewed.

Keywords

arterivirus
coronavirus
torovirus
polyprotein processing
RNA recombination

Cited by (0)

S. G. Siddell, Ed.

1

To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.

[email protected]

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