Luteovirus is one of three genera in the luteoviridae

Luteoviridae

The Luteoviridae are a family of viruses, including the following genera:*Genus Luteovirus; type species: Barley yellow dwarf virus-PAV*Genus Polerovirus; type species: Potato leafroll virus...

 family whose primary hosts are plants. The genera also contains the polerovirus

Potato leaf roll virus

Potato leafroll virus is a member of the genus Polerovirus and family Luteoviridae. The phloem limited positive sense RNA virus infects potatos and other members of the family Solanaceae. PLRV was first described by Quanjer et. al. in 1916. PLRV is transmitted by aphids, primarily the green...

 and enamovirus. The geographical distribution of luteovirus is widespread, with the virus primarily infecting plants via transmission by aphid

Aphid

Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions...

 vectors. The virus only replicates within the host cell and not within the vector http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/ICTVdB/39010000.htm. The name 'luteovirus' arises from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 luteus, which is translated as 'yellow'. Luteovirus was given this name due to the symptomatic yellowing of the plant that occurs as a result of infection.

Morphology and genome structure

Luteovirus is a group IV virus according to the Baltimore classification

Baltimore classification

The Baltimore classification, developed by David Baltimore, is a virus classification system that groups viruses into families, depending on their type of genome and their method of replication....

 of viruses. Each virion contains a single strand of (+) sense

Sense (molecular biology)

In molecular biology and genetics, sense is a concept used to compare the polarity of nucleic acid molecules, such as DNA or RNA, to other nucleic acid molecules...

 RNA

RNA

Ribonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....

. The genome is non-segmented, linear and between 5300 and 5900 nucleotide

Nucleotide

Nucleotides are molecules that, when joined together, make up the structural units of RNA and DNA. In addition, nucleotides participate in cellular signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions...

s long. Notably, luteovirus has two 5'

Directionality (molecular biology)

Directionality, in molecular biology and biochemistry, is the end-to-end chemical orientation of a single strand of nucleic acid. The chemical convention of naming carbon atoms in the nucleotide sugar-ring numerically gives rise to a 5′-end and a 3′-end...

 open reading frame

Open reading frame

In molecular genetics, an open reading frame is a DNA sequence that does not contain a stop codon in a given reading frame.Normally, inserts which interrupt the reading frame of a subsequent region after the start codon cause frameshift mutation of the sequence and dislocate the sequences for stop...

s (ORFs) which are located upstream of the coat protein. One such ORF encodes an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Several other ORFs are present at the 3'

Directionality (molecular biology)

Directionality, in molecular biology and biochemistry, is the end-to-end chemical orientation of a single strand of nucleic acid. The chemical convention of naming carbon atoms in the nucleotide sugar-ring numerically gives rise to a 5′-end and a 3′-end...

 terminus and are expressed from subgenomic RNA. Luteovirus also lacks polyadenylation

Polyadenylation

Polyadenylation is the addition of a poly tail to an RNA molecule. The poly tail consists of multiple adenosine monophosphates; in other words, it is a stretch of RNA that has only adenine bases. In eukaryotes, polyadenylation is part of the process that produces mature messenger RNA for translation...

 at the 3' terminus.

Virions are non-enveloped, icosahedral structures, ranging from 25–30 nm in diameter with 32 capsomeres in each nucleocapsid. The nucleic acid content is around 28% http://www.dpvweb.net/notes/showgenus.php?genus=Luteovirus.

External links

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/ICTVdB/39010000.htm
• http://www.dpvweb.net/notes/showgenus.php?genus=Luteovirus
• Viralzone: Luteovirus