Group Group III (dsRNA) Rank Family | Order Unassigned | |
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Amalgaviridae is a family of double-stranded RNA viruses that has one genus: Amalgavirus. Members of both the family and the genus are referred to as amalgaviruses. There are currently four recognized species of the family: Blueberry latent virus, Rhododendron virus A, Southern tomato virus, the type species of Amalgavirus, and Vicia cryptic virus M. The family and genus are called amalga, from amalgam, due to the viruses possessing characteristics of both partitiviruses and totiviruses, indicating a likely genetic relation to those two families. Members of this family infect plants and are transmitted vertically via seeds. Their genomes are monopartite, about 3.5 kilobases in length, and contain two partially overlapping open reading frames, encoding the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and a putative capsid protein.
Evolution
It has been suggested that amalgaviruses have evolved via recombination between viruses with double-stranded and negative-strand RNA genomes. Specifically, phylogenetic analyses have shown that the amalgavirus RdRps form a sister clade to the corresponding proteins of partitiviruses (Partitiviridae) which have segmented (bipartite) dsRNA genomes and infect plants, fungi and protists. By contrast, the putative capsid protein of amalgaviruses is homologous to the nucleocapsid proteins of negative-strand RNA viruses of the genera Phlebovirus (Bunyaviridae) and Tenuivirus.