siphovirus
Sign in to saveSiphoviridae was a family of double-stranded DNA viruses in the order Caudovirales. The family Siphoviridae and order Caudovirales have now been abolished, with the term siphovirus now used to refer to the morphology of viruses in this former family. Bacteria and archaea serve as natural hosts. The family had 1,166 species, assigned to 366 genera and 22 subfamilies. The characteristic structural features are a non-enveloped head and non-contractile tail.
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5 sectionsContents
- Structure
- Life cycle
- Taxonomy
- References
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Siphoviridae was a family of double-stranded DNA viruses in the order Caudovirales. The family Siphoviridae and order Caudovirales have now been abolished, with the term siphovirus now used to refer to the morphology of viruses in this former family. Bacteria and archaea serve as natural hosts. The family had 1,166 species, assigned to 366 genera and 22 subfamilies. The characteristic structural features are a non-enveloped head and non-contractile tail.
==Structure== thumb|right|upright=0.75|Typical siphovirus structure Viruses in the former family Siphoviridae are non-enveloped, with icosahedral and head-tail geometries (morphotype B1) or a prolate capsid (morphotype B2), and T=7 symmetry. Their diameters are around 60 nm. Members of this family are also characterized by their filamentous, cross-banded, non-contractile tails, usually with short terminal and subterminal fibers. Genomes are double stranded and linear, around 50 kb in length.