Morphology

MORPHOLOGY
  • Virions have a complex construction and consist of an envelope, a capsid, a core, and a nucleoprotein complex. During their life cycle, virions have an extracellular transcription phase. Virions are enveloped and are not ether sensitive.
  • Virions are spherical and 175-215 nm in diameter. Capsid/nucleocapsid is round and exhibits icosahedral symmetry. The capsid surface structure does not reveal a regular pattern with distinctive features. The capsid consists of 1892-2172 capsomers; each capsomer measures 13 nm in diameter.
  • Capsomers consist of a hexagonal base with a central cavity. The genome is not segmented and consists of a single molecule of linear double-stranded DNA. The complete genome is 170000-190000 nucleotides long.
Last modified: Friday, 1 October 2010, 7:06 AM