Flaviviridae

Tijani Hassan and Jennifer Lint

Humans and Viruses 2005

Stanford University

Dr. Robert Siegel

 

Dengue infected cells: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0109/biochem.terrorism/rawpicts/dengue.jpg

 

Flaviviruses are very prevalent around the world and cause such serious diseases as Dengue Fever, Hepatitis C, Japanese Encephalitis, West Nile Encephalitis, and Yellow Fever. The viruses in Flaviviridae are single-stranded RNA viruses. The genome is linear and non-segmented. The genome is also capped and has a length of 10 kilobases. The capsid is icosehedral and enveloped. It is also spherical and about 40 to 50 nm in diameter. Replication occurs in the positive sense in the cytoplasm. There are several different modes of transmission for the viruses in this family: sexual, arthropod vector, and parental.

 

Hepatitis C virion: hopkins-gi.org/.../database/shared_528_VC-02.jpg