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Lyssavirus (from the Greek λύσσα lyssa "rage, fury, rabies" and the Latin vīrus) is a genus of RNA viruses in the family Rhabdoviridae, order Mononegavirales. Mammals, including humans, can serve as natural hosts. The genus Lyssavirus includes the rabies virus traditionally associated with the disease of the same name. 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. The structure consists of a spiked outer envelope, a middle region consisting of matrix protein M, and an inner ribonucleocapsid complex region, consisting of the genome associated with other proteins. Lyssavirus genomes consist of a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA molecule that encodes five viral proteins: polymerase L, matrix protein M, phosphoprotein P, nucleoprotein N, and glycoprotein G. Genomes are linear, around 11kb in length. Based on recent phylogenetic evidence, lyssaviruses have been categorized into seven major species. 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 phylogroups based upon DNA sequence homology. Phylogroup I includes viruses, such as Rabies virus, Duvenhage virus, European bat lyssavirus types 1 and 2, Australian bat lyssavirus, Khujand virus, Bokeloh bat lyssavirus, Irkut virus, and Aravan virus. Phylogroup II contains Lagos bat virus, Mokola virus, and Shimoni bat virus. West Caucasian bat lyssavirus is the only virus that is a part of phylogroup III. Ikoma lyssavirus and Lleida bat lyssavirus are examples in phylogroup IV. West Caucasian bat lyssavirus was classified within its own phylogroup because it is the most divergent lyssavirus that has been discovered.

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Application of broad-spectrum resequencing microarray for genotyping rhabdoviruses

Stewart Cole, Iain Old

The rapid and accurate identification of pathogens is critical in the control of infectious disease. To this end, we analyzed the capacity for viral detection and identification of a newly described high-density resequencing microarray (RMA), termed Pathog ...

2010

Rabies

Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") due to the symptom of panic when presented with liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion, and loss of consciousness.

Rabies virus

Rabies virus, scientific name Rabies lyssavirus, is a neurotropic virus that causes rabies in humans and animals. Rabies transmission can occur through the saliva of animals and less commonly through contact with human saliva. Rabies lyssavirus, like many rhabdoviruses, has an extremely wide host range. In the wild it has been found infecting many mammalian species, while in the laboratory it has been found that birds can be infected, as well as cell cultures from mammals, birds, reptiles and insects.

Natural reservoir

In infectious disease ecology and epidemiology, a natural reservoir, also known as a disease reservoir or a reservoir of infection, is the population of organisms or the specific environment in which an infectious pathogen naturally lives and reproduces, or upon which the pathogen primarily depends for its survival. A reservoir is usually a living host of a certain species, such as an animal or a plant, inside of which a pathogen survives, often (though not always) without causing disease for the reservoir itself.