Notes on Family: Bidnaviridae
icosahedra
Contents
General Description
This family of
bipartite ss
DNA viruses infecting invertebrates is unique amongst ssDNA viruses. Although the viruses were once considered members of the family
Parvoviridae (subfamily
Densovirinae) their genomes differ greatly from those viruses in size and coding strategy.
Morphology
Virions are isometric (icosahedral), not enveloped and about 25 nm in diameter. There are two structural proteins.
Genomen
There are two linear ssDNA segments of about 6 and 6.5 kb, that are packaged separately. The complementary strands are also packaged, so that there are 4 different types of full particles. The total genome length is thus almost 13 kb (instead of 4-6 kb for parvoviruses).
Genera in the Family
There is currently only one genus: