page_title: Mycovirus
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Mycovirus / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: English: Listing of all formally named and recognised mycoviruses summarised from “Virus Taxonomy: The Ninth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses” (King et al., 2011).
context_page_description: Mycoviruses, also known as mycophages, are viruses that infect fungi. The majority of mycoviruses have double-stranded RNA genomes and isometric particles, but approximately 30% have positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genomes.
  True mycoviruses demonstrate an ability to be transmitted to infect other healthy fungi. Many double-stranded RNA elements that have been described in fungi do not fit this description, and in these cases they are referred to as virus-like particles or VLPs. Preliminary results indicate that most mycoviruses co-diverge with their hosts, i.e. their phylogeny is largely congruent with that of their primary hosts. However, many virus families containing mycoviruses have only sparsely been sampled. Mycovirology is the study of mycoviruses. It is a special subdivision of virology and seeks to understand and describe the taxonomy, host range, origin and evolution, transmission and movement of mycoviruses and their impact on host phenotype.
context_section_description: The majority of mycoviruses have double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) genomes and isometric particles, but approximately 30% have positive-sense, single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) genomes. So far there is only one true example of a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) mycovirus. A geminivirus-related virus was found in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum conferring hypovirulence to its host. The updated 9th ICTV report on virus taxonomy lists over 90 mycovirus species covering 10 viral families, of which 20% were not assigned to a genus or sometimes not even to a family.
  Isometric forms predominate mycoviral morphologies in comparison to rigid rods, flexuous rods, club-shaped particles, enveloped bacilliform particles, and Herpesvirus-like viruses. The lack of genomic data often hampers a conclusive assignment to already established groups of viruses or makes it impossible to erect new families and genera. The latter is true for many unencapsidated dsRNA viruses, which are assumed to be viral, but missing sequence data has prevented their classification so far. So far, viruses of the families Partitiviridae, Totiviridae, and Narnaviridae are dominating the "mycovirus sphere".
caption: Listing of all formally named and recognised mycoviruses summarised from “Virus Taxonomy: The Ninth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses” (King et al., 2011)
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