Articulavirales is an order of segmented negative-strand RNA viruses which infect invertebrates and vertebrates.[2] It includes the family of influenza viruses which infect humans. It is the only order of viruses in the monotypicclassInsthoviricetes.[3] The order contains two families and eight genera.[1] Metatranscriptomics of aquatic animal samples paired with phylogenetics suggests that Articulavirales exhibits complex cross-species virus transmission and virus-host co-divergence over deep evolutionary time scales. Potentially originating in ancient aquatic animals at least 600 Mya.[4]
Etymology
The order name Articulavirales derives from Latin articulata meaning "segmented" (alluding to the segmented genome of member viruses) added to the suffix for virus orders -virales.[3] The class name Insthoviricetes is a portmanteau of member viruses "influenza, isavirus, and thogotovirus" added to the suffix -viricetes for virus classes.[3]
Genome
Member viruses have segmented, negative-sense, single-stranded RNA genomes.[2]
Classification
The order Articulavirales contains two families and eight genera:[1]