Reoviridae

Introduction to Reoviridae

Reoviridae (respiratory enteric orphan viridae) is a family of naked double-stranded RNA viruses. Depending on the specific species, reoviruses have 10, 11, or 12 genomic segments contained in two or three concentric icosahedral capsids. The nine genera of reoviridae infect a wide range of hosts including vertabrates, invertabrates, and plants. Four of these nine genera have viruses that infect humans. Human rotavirus and Colorado tick fever virus are the most well-known human reoviruses. Despite reoviridae's name, many reoviruses are not ophan viruses and do, indeed, cause disease. Human rotavirus, for example, is responsible for over 800,000 deaths of children under 2 years old each year. A more complete background of Reoviridae is available at the 1998 page and the 1999 page.

Images

1. Camazine, Scott. 2001. http://www.scottcamazine.com/photos/virus/pages/reovirus_jpg.htm

2. Veterinary Sciences Division. 2004. http://www.qub.ac.uk/afs/ vs/vsd6e.html

3. Sgro, Jean-yves. 2004. http://rhino.bocklabs.wisc.edu/virusworld/images/rep_virion.GIF

4. Steffens, W.L. 1998. http://www.vet.uga.edu/ivcvm/1998/steffens/fig16.jpg

5. Creekmore, Terry. 2002. http://wdhfs.state.wy.us/vector_borne/_borders/Image155.gif

6. Boulder County. 2004. http://www.co.boulder.co.us/health/hpe/images/rota.h2.gif

References

Kapikian, A. Z., Y. Hoshino, and R. M. Chanock. 2001. Rotavirus, p. 1787-1833. In D. M. Knipe et al. (ed.), Fields virology, 4th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, Pa.

Siegel, Robert. Humans and Viruses class notes. Feb. 12, 2004.

Wagner, Edward, and Martinez Hewlett. Basic Virology. Malden: Blackwell Science Ltd, 2004.