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Virus Classification
Virus naming has changed over the years. Some viruses are named for the disease they cause (ie HIV) for the site of isolation (ie adenovirus) for the people or place of discovery (ie Epstein Barr virus) or its features (ie retrovirus)
Virus classification is goes family-subfamily-genus-species-strain/type
Virus families all have the suffix 'viridae', while genera have the suffix 'virus'
Virus classification is done considering various features:
Shape: virus capsomeres usually associate to form one of three way capsid shapes
- cubic/icosohedral (ie herpes viruses
- helical (ie influenza)
- complex (ie phage)
Type and form of nucleic acid
- RNA single stranded; positive or negative polarity (positive = mRNA)
- RNA double stranded; one piece or segmented
- DNA single or double stranded
Enveloped or naked: dependent on host plasma membrane for enveloping
- Naked viruses
- papillomavirus
- parvovirus
- adenovirus
- picornavirus
- enteroviruses
- coxasackie virus
- echo virus
- polio virus
- rhinovirus
- hepatitis A
- enteroviruses
Mode of replication
Organization of genome and antigenic differences