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Astrovirus Taxonomy

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Astrovirus Research

Abstract

Since their first discovery in children, astroviruses have been isolated from stools from a wide variety of other mammals where they have been investigated (cats, cattle, deer, dogs, mice, pigs, sheep, minks, bats, cheetahs, rats, rabbits, and marine mammals), as well as birds (turkeys, chickens, ducks, guinea fowls, and pigeons). They are nonenveloped positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses classified as the Astroviridae family.

The family is divided into two genera: genus Mamastrovirus (MAstVs) including viruses infecting mammals, and genus Avastrovirus (AAstVs) including viruses infecting avian species. Based on the species of the host of origin, the Ninth ICTV Report described six virus species within the MAstV genus and three species within the AAstV genus. However, the recent discovery of many novel mammalian and avian astroviruses highlighted the fact that astrovirus species cannot be established based solely on the animal species of the host, and the Astroviridae Study Group soon updated the taxonomic scheme. Demarcation into genotype species within genera is now performed on the basis of host range but also genetic differences on the complete capsid sequence.

Following these standardized criteria, the MAstV and the AAstV genera may be divided into 33 and 7 species, respectively, showing that astroviruses constitute a remarkably genetically diverse family with a broad spectrum of host species. Members of multiple astrovirus species can infect the same host, while other variants may infect more than one animal species. Since new astroviruses are continuously being discovered, their taxonomy should be regularly updated using the current classification scheme and criteria, which are summarized in this chapter.

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  1. Department of Microbiology, Enteric Virus Laboratory, Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, University of Barcelona, Avenue Diagonal 643, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

    Susana Guix Ph.D., Albert Bosch Ph.D. & Rosa M. Pintó Ph.D.

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  1. , Infectious Diseases, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, 38105, Tennessee, USA

    Stacey Schultz-Cherry

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Guix, S., Bosch, A., Pintó, R.M. (2012). Astrovirus Taxonomy. In: Schultz-Cherry, S. (eds) Astrovirus Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4735-1_6

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