Trent University, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8, Canada.
Viruses. 2010 Jul;2(7):1458-1475. doi: 10.3390/v2071458. Epub 2010 Jul 15.
The Iridoviridae family are large viruses (∼120-200 nm) that contain a linear double-stranded DNA genome. The genomic size of Iridoviridae family members range from 105,903 bases encoding 97 open reading frames (ORFs) for frog virus 3 to 212,482 bases encoding 211 ORFs for Chilo iridescent virus. The family Iridoviridae is currently subdivided into five genera: Chloriridovirus, Iridovirus, Lymphocystivirus, Megalocytivirus, and Ranavirus. Iridoviruses have been found to infect invertebrates and poikilothermic vertebrates, including amphibians, reptiles, and fish. With such a diverse array of hosts, there is great diversity in gene content between different genera. To understand the origin of iridoviruses, we explored the phylogenetic relationship between individual iridoviruses and defined the core-set of genes shared by all members of the family. In order to further explore the evolutionary relationship between the Iridoviridae family repetitive sequences were identified and compared. Each genome was found to contain a set of unique repetitive sequences that could be used in future virus identification. Repeats common to more than one virus were also identified and changes in copy number between these repeats may provide a simple method to differentiate between very closely related virus strains. The results of this paper will be useful in identifying new iridoviruses and determining their relationship to other members of the family.
虹彩病毒科是一类大型病毒（约 120-200nm），包含线性双链 DNA 基因组。虹彩病毒科成员的基因组大小范围从编码 97 个开放阅读框（ORFs）的蛙病毒 3 的 105903 个碱基到编码 211 个 ORFs 的 Chilo 虹彩病毒的 212482 个碱基。虹彩病毒科目前分为五个属：Chloriridovirus、Iridovirus、Lymphocystivirus、Megalocytivirus 和 Ranavirus。虹彩病毒已被发现感染无脊椎动物和变温脊椎动物，包括两栖动物、爬行动物和鱼类。由于宿主种类如此繁多，不同属之间的基因内容存在很大差异。为了了解虹彩病毒的起源，我们探索了单个虹彩病毒之间的系统发育关系，并定义了该科所有成员共有的核心基因集。为了进一步探索虹彩病毒科重复序列之间的进化关系，我们对其进行了鉴定和比较。每个基因组都包含一组独特的重复序列，可用于未来的病毒鉴定。还鉴定了多个病毒共有的重复序列，这些重复序列之间拷贝数的变化可能提供一种简单的方法来区分非常密切相关的病毒株。本文的结果将有助于识别新的虹彩病毒并确定它们与该科其他成员的关系。
