ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Plasmaviridae

Abstract

The family Plasmaviridae includes bacterial viruses with slightly pleomorphic, enveloped virions with a diameter of 50-125 nm. Virions contain infectious, circular, supercoiled dsDNA molecule(s) of approximately 12 kbp. Plasmaviruses infect Acholeplasma species, wall-less bacteria of the class Mollicutes, and are released by budding through the cell membrane without causing host cell lysis. Although the temperate bacteriophage Acholeplasma virus L2 of Acholeplasma laidlawii is currently the only classified plasmavirus, related prophages reside in the genomes of different Acholeplasma species, where they are integrated into tRNA genes. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of the Plasmaviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/plasmaviridae.