''Lyssavirus'' (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''lyssa'' "rage, fury, rabies" and the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

'' vīrus'') is a genus of

RNA virus An RNA virus is a virus characterized by a ribonucleic acid (RNA) based genome. The genome can be single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) or double-stranded (Double-stranded RNA, dsRNA). Notable human diseases caused by RNA viruses include influenza, SARS, ...

es in the family ''

Rhabdoviridae ''Rhabdoviridae'' is a family of negative-strand RNA viruses in the order ''Mononegavirales''. Vertebrates (including mammals and humans), invertebrates, plants, fungi and protozoans serve as natural hosts. Diseases associated with member virus ...

'', order ''

Mononegavirales ''Mononegavirales'' is an order of negative-strand RNA viruses which have nonsegmented genomes. Some members that cause human disease in this order include Ebola virus, human respiratory syncytial virus, measles virus, mumps virus, Nipah viru ...

''. Mammals, including humans, can serve as natural

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

s. The genus ''Lyssavirus'' includes the

causative agent In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ. The term ...

(

rabies virus Rabies virus (''Lyssavirus rabies'') is a neurotropic virus that causes rabies in animals, including humans. It can cause violence, hydrophobia, and fever. Rabies transmission can also occur through the saliva of animals and less commonly throu ...

) of

rabies Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims panic when offered liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abn ...

Taxonomy

The genus contains the following species, listed by scientific name and followed by the exemplar virus of the species: * ''Lyssavirus aravan'',

Aravan virus Aravan may refer to: *Aravan, Kyrgyzstan, a large village in Osh Region, Kyrgyzstan * Aravan District, a district of Osh Region, Kyrgyzstan *Aravan or Aravansay, a river in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan * Aravan (legendary), a legendary ruler of 5th c ...

* ''Lyssavirus australis'',

Australian bat lyssavirus Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) is a enzootic virus closely related to the rabies virus. It was first identified in a 5-month-old juvenile black flying fox (''Pteropus alecto'') collected near Ballina, New South Wales, Ballina in northern New ...

* ''Lyssavirus bokeloh'',

Bokeloh bat lyssavirus Bokeloh bat lyssavirus (BBLV) is negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus of the genus ''Lyssavirus'' first isolated from a Natterer's bat (''Myotis nattereri'') found in Bokeloh, Lower Saxony, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Re ...

* ''Lyssavirus caucasicus'',

West Caucasian bat virus West Caucasian bat virus (WCBV) is a member of genus ''Lyssavirus'', family ''Rhabdoviridae'' and order ''Mononegavirales''. This virus was first isolated from ''Miniopterus schreibersii,'' in the western Caucasus Mountains of southeastern Europe ...

* ''Lyssavirus duvenhage'',

Duvenhage virus Duvenhage virus (DUVV) is a member of the genus ''Lyssavirus'', which also contains the rabies virus. The virus was discovered in 1970, when a South African farmer (after whom the virus is named) died of a rabies-like encephalitic illness, after ...

* ''Lyssavirus formosa'', Taiwan bat lyssavirus * ''Lyssavirus gannoruwa'', Gannoruwa bat lyssavirus * ''Lyssavirus hamburg'',

European bat lyssavirus 1 European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1) is one of three rabies virus-like agents of the genus ''Lyssavirus'' found in serotine bats (''Eptesicus serotinus'') in Spain. Strains of EBLV-1 have been identified as EBLV-1a and EBLV-1b. EBLV-1a was isolate ...

* ''Lyssavirus helsinki'',

European bat lyssavirus 2 European bat lyssavirus 2 (EBLV-2) is one of three rabies-virus-like agents of the genus ''Lyssavirus'' found in Daubenton's bats (''Myotis daubentonii'') in Great Britain.Johnson N, Vos A, Neubert L, Freuling C, Mansfield KL, Kaipf I, Denzinger ...

* ''Lyssavirus ikoma'',

Ikoma lyssavirus Ikoma may refer to: * Mount Ikoma in Nara Prefecture, Japan * Ikoma (ethnic group) an ethnic group of Tanzania * Ikoma, Nara, a city in Nara Prefecture, Japan * Ikoma Station, a station in Ikoma City, Japan * Ikoma clan The was a Japanese samu ...

* ''Lyssavirus irkut'', Irkut virus * ''Lyssavirus khujand'', Khujand virus * ''Lyssavirus kotalahti'', Kotalahti bat lyssavirus * ''Lyssavirus lagos'',

Lagos bat virus Lagos bat virus (LBV) is a ''Lyssavirus'' of southern and central Africa that causes a rabies-like illness in mammals. It was first isolated from a fruit bat (''Eidolon helvum'') from Lagos Island, Nigeria in 1956. Brain samples from the bat sho ...

* ''Lyssavirus lleida'',

Lleida bat lyssavirus Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ha ...

* ''Lyssavirus mokola'',

Mokola virus Mokola virus (MOKV) is an RNA virus related to rabies virus that has been sporadically isolated from mammals across sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of isolates have come from domestic cats exhibiting symptoms characteristically associated to rab ...

* ''Lyssavirus rabies'',

Rabies virus Rabies virus (''Lyssavirus rabies'') is a neurotropic virus that causes rabies in animals, including humans. It can cause violence, hydrophobia, and fever. Rabies transmission can also occur through the saliva of animals and less commonly throu ...

* ''Lyssavirus shimoni'',

Shimoni bat virus Shimoni bat virus is a ''Lyssavirus'' which was discovered in Kenya in 2009. It bears significant similarities to the ''Lyssavirus'' Lagos bat virus. The virus was isolated from the brain of a dead Commerson's leaf-nosed bat ('' Hipposideros com ...

Virology

Structure

Lyssavirions are enveloped, with bullet shaped geometries. These virions are about 75 nm wide and 180 nm long. Lyssavirions have helical symmetry, so their infectious particles are approximately cylindrical in shape. This is typical of plant-infecting viruses. Virions of human-infecting viruses more commonly have cubic symmetry and take shapes approximating

regular polyhedra A regular polyhedron is a polyhedron whose symmetry group acts transitively on its flags. A regular polyhedron is highly symmetrical, being all of edge-transitive, vertex-transitive and face-transitive. In classical contexts, many different eq ...

. The structure consists of a spiked outer

envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter (message), letter or Greeting card, card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one o ...

, a middle region consisting of matrix protein M, and an inner

ribonucleocapsid A capsid is the protein shell of a virus, enclosing its genetic material. It consists of several oligomeric (repeating) structural subunits made of protein called protomers. The observable 3-dimensional morphological subunits, which may or may ...

complex region, consisting of the genome associated with other proteins.

Genome

Lyssavirus

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

s consist of a negative-sense, single-stranded

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

molecule that encodes five viral proteins:

polymerase In biochemistry, a polymerase is an enzyme (Enzyme Commission number, EC 2.7.7.6/7/19/48/49) that synthesizes long chains of polymers or nucleic acids. DNA polymerase and RNA polymerase are used to assemble DNA and RNA molecules, respectively, by ...

L, matrix

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

phosphoprotein A phosphoprotein is a protein that is posttranslationally modified by the attachment of either a single phosphate group, or a complex molecule such as 5'-phospho-DNA, through a phosphate group. The target amino acid is most often serine, threonin ...

nucleoprotein Nucleoproteins are proteins conjugated with nucleic acids (either DNA or RNA). Typical nucleoproteins include ribosomes, nucleosomes and viral nucleocapsid proteins. Structures Nucleoproteins tend to be positively charged, facilitating inte ...

N, and

glycoprotein Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide (sugar) chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known a ...

G. Genomes are linear, around 11kb in length. Based on recent phylogenetic evidence, lyssaviruses have been categorized into seven major

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. In addition, five more species have recently been discovered: West Caucasian bat virus, Aravan virus, Khujand virus, Irkut virus and Shimoni bat virus. The lyssavirus genus can be divided into four

phylogroup {{Short pages monitor