Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Filovirus Assembly and Budding
Takeshi Noda
*
,‡
and Yoshihiro Kawaoka
*
,†,‡,§
Filoviridae
are single-stranded, non-segmented, negative-sense RNA viruses.
To date, only two members of this virus family have been identified: the Ebola
and Marburg viruses. Both viruses possess lipid envelopes and have character-
istic filamentous shapes. Filovirus infections are a growing concern because
they can cause significant morbidity and mortality (30%-90%) and no vaccines
or treatments are currently available. In addition, the potential use of
filoviruses as biological weapons has prompted the need to develop counter-
measures. Although many questions about filovirus pathogenicity remain
unanswered, much has been learned in recent years about the filovirus lifecy-
cle, particularly the roles of the viral and cellular components in assembly and
budding. Such data have greatly increased our understanding of filovirus par-
ticle formation. This review summarizes our current knowledge of filovirus
particle formation and the viral proteins believed to be critical for this process.
Introduction
Filoviruses, namely the Ebola and Marburg viruses, are taxonomically
classified in the family
Filoviridae
. All filoviruses possess single-stranded,
non-segmented, negative-sense RNA genomes.
1
Their virions are
*International Research Center for Infectious Diseases.
†
Division of Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Institute of Medical
Science, University of Tokyo, Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639.
‡
Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency,
Saitama 332-0012.
§
Department of Pathological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-
Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.
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