''Rudiviridae'' is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...
es
with linear double stranded DNA genomes that infect
archaea. The viruses of this family are highly thermostable and can act as a template for site-selective and spatially controlled chemical modification. Furthermore, the two strands of the DNA are covalently linked at both ends of the genomes, which have long inverted terminal repeats. These
inverted repeat An inverted repeat (or IR) is a single stranded sequence of nucleotides followed downstream by its complementarity (molecular biology), reverse complement. The intervening sequence of nucleotides between the initial sequence and the reverse compleme ...
s are an adaptation to stabilize the genome in these extreme environments.
Taxonomy
The following genera are assigned to the family:
* ''
Azorudivirus''
* ''
Hoswirudivirus''
* ''
Icerudivirus''
* ''
Itarudivirus''
* ''
Japarudivirus''
* ''
Mexirudivirus''
* ''
Usarudivirus''
References
{{Reflist
Virus families