Virology
The virion is non-enveloped with a filamentous nucleocapsid, 680 to 900 nanometers (nm) long and is 11-20 nm in diameter. The nucleocapsid contains ~2000 copies of the capsid protein. The symmetry of the nucleocapsid is helical with a pitch of 3.4 nm.
The genome is a linear positive sense ssRNA ranging in size from 9000-12000bp. A number of species have a bipartate genome.The base composition is: 21-23.51-26% G; 23-30.15-44% A; 14.9-22.41-28% C; 15.6-24.41-30.9% U.
In the species with a single genome, at the 5' end a protein is covalently linked (the Vg protein). It encodes a single open reading frame (ORF) expressed as a 350kDa polyprotein precursor. This is processed into seven smaller proteins: P1, helper component (HC), P3, cylindrical inclusion (CI), nuclear inclusion A (NIa), nuclear inclusion B (NIb), capsid protein (CP) and two small putative proteins known as 6K1 and 6K2. The P3 protein also encodes a second protein - P3N-PIPO - which is generated by a +2 frameshift.
Read more about this topic: Potyvirus