Description of Potyviridae
adapted from
ICTVdb
Virion Properties
Morphology
Virions consist of a
capsid. Virus capsid is not enveloped. Capsid/nucleocapsid is
elongated with helical symmetry. Virus preparations contain one
particle component, or more than one particle component. The
capsid is filamentous, flexuous; with a clear modal length, or
clear predominate lengths with a length of 680-900 nm, or 500-600
nm; 200-300 nm and a width of 12-15 nm. Pitch of helix is 3.4 nm.
Physicochemical and Physical Properties
Virions have a buoyant density in
CsCl of 1.26-1.34 g cm
-3.
Nucleic Acid
The Mr of the genome constitutes 5% of the virion by
weight. The genome is linear, positive-sense, single-stranded
RNA. The complete genome is 8500-10000 nucleotides long. The
5'-end of the genome has a genome-linked protein (VPg). The
3'-terminus has a poly (A) tract. The multipartite genome is
divided among more than one type of particle and the segments are
distributed between 2 different types of particles.
Proteins
Proteins constitute about 95% of the
particle weight.
The viral genome encodes structural proteins and
non-structural proteins.
Lipids
Lipids are not reported.