Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Virus taxonomy ?

Posted by BubikolRamios on 23-01-2014 19:43
#1

example: https://en.wikipe...spot_virus

see there:


Species: Impatiens necrotic spot virus


Means ? No latin scientific names for that ?

Edited by BubikolRamios on 23-01-2014 19:43

Posted by Xespok on 23-01-2014 21:32
#2

In viruses and microorganisms traditional taxonomical concepts rarely work, and now essentially all major players agree that species is not a valid and meaningful entity to describe these forms of life. Here one can talk about strains, or even just isolates.

The reason for this is that the genome of these organisms are not very stable, as they continuously undergo various forms of genome shuffling.

Therefore you are less and less likely to find Linnean-like names for viruses and microorganisms.

Posted by John Carr on 24-01-2014 02:25
#3

A virologist discusses the subject here: http://www.microb...sification. See also http://en.wikiped...sification.

Plant viruses get non-Latin names like "tobacco mosaic virus." Animal viruses are assigned a Latin family and genus. Above and below that level classification diverges from zoological nomenclature.

Plants, like viruses and bacteria, have a large amount of horizontal gene transfer and commonly propagate asexually. They still have binomial names.

Posted by ValerioW on 01-08-2014 20:35
#4

I've always liked Baltimore classification that bases classes on genome's type and chain. From that everything starts