Spumaretrovirinae

Spumaretrovirinae
Virus classification Edit this classification
(unranked): Virus
Realm: Riboviria
Kingdom: Pararnavirae
Phylum: Artverviricota
Class: Revtraviricetes
Order: Ortervirales
Family: Retroviridae
Subfamily: Spumaretrovirinae
Genera[1]

Spumaretrovirinae, commonly called spumaviruses (spuma, Latin for "foam") or foamyviruses, is a subfamily of the Retroviridae family.[2] Spumaviruses are exogenous viruses that have specific morphology with prominent surface spikes. The virions contain significant amounts of double-stranded full-length DNA, and assembly is rather unusual in these viruses. Spumaviruses are unlike most enveloped viruses in that the envelope membrane is acquired by budding through the endoplasmic reticulum instead of the cytoplasmic membrane. Some spumaviruses, including the equine foamy virus (EFV), bud from the cytoplasmic membrane.

Some examples of these viruses are simian foamy virus and the human foamy virus.

While spumaviruses will form characteristic large vacuoles in their host cells while in vitro, there is no disease association in vivo.[3]

  1. ^ "Virus Taxonomy: 2018b Release". International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  2. ^ ICTV: Master Species List 2018a v1 MSL including all taxa updates since the 2017 release. Fall 2018 (MSL #33)
  3. ^ Acheson, NH (2007). Fundamentals of Molecular Virology (1st ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-35151-1.