Genetics of Rhabdoviruses

Abstract

The rhabdoviruses are enveloped bullet-shaped viruses infecting a wide range of organisms (for reviews, see Howatson, 1970; Knudsen, 1973; Wagner, 1975). The host may be a vertebrate (bird, fish, or mammal), an invertebrate (insect or arachnid), or a plant. Some rhabdoviruses, like Chandipura virus or vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), have a wide host range and may be vector transmitted in nature. Indeed, although VSV is known because of the disease it produces in man and domestic animals, it is capable of multiplying in both its invertebrate vector and the vertebrate host, and it has been suggested that VSV is not primarily a virus of vertebrates (Tech et al., 1970). The plant rhabdovirus, lettuce necrotic yellows virus, can also multiply in its insect vector, and one rhabdovirus, sigma virus, is known only as a hereditary infection of the insect Drosophila. However, other rhabdoviruses, such as rabies virus, are restricted in their host range and no insect vector appears to be involved in their spread.