Updated: January 12, 2011

Virus Taxonomy

Orthography: ("spelling conventions")

The names of virus orders, families, subfamilies, genera and species should be written in italics with the first letter capitalized.
Other words are not capitalized unless they are proper nouns, e.g. Tobacco mosaic virus, Poliovirus, Murray River encephalitis virus.
This format should only be used when official taxonomic entities are referred to - it is not possible to centrifuge the species Poliovirus for example, but it is possible to centrifuge poliovirus.
Italics and capitalization are not used for vernacular forms (e.g. rhinoviruses, c.f. the genus Rhinovirus), for acronyms (e.g. HIV-1), nor for adjectival usage (e.g. poliovirus polymerase).
See: M.H.V. Van Regenmortel: How to write the names of virus species. Arch.Virol. 144 (1999) 5, 1041-1042.

In 2010 the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) formally recognized:

6 Orders
87 Families
19 Subfamilies
348 Genera
and 2285 Species of viruses

This formal taxonomy is constantly changing, so readers are advised to click on the above link where they will be able to find the latest information for themselves. However, as a convenience, the structure of the major taxonomic groups of viruses as recognized at the time of publication is given below:

Order	Family
Caudovirales	Myoviridae
	Podoviridae
	Siphoviridae
Herpesvirales	Alloherpesviridae
	Herpesviridae
	Malacoherpesviridae
Mononegavirales	Bornaviridae
	Filoviridae
	Paramyxoviridae
	Rhabdoviridae
Nidovirales	Arteriviridae
	Coronaviridae
	Roniviridae
Picornavirales	Dicistroviridae
	Iflaviridae
	Marnaviridae
	Picornaviridae
	Secoviridae
Tymovirales	Alphaflexiviridae
	Betaflexiviridae
	Gammaflexiviridae
	Tymoviridae
Unassigned	Adenoviridae
	Ampullaviridae
	Anelloviridae
	Arenaviridae
	Ascoviridae
	Asfarviridae
	Astroviridae
	Avsunviroidae
	Baculoviridae
	Barnaviridae
	Bicaudaviridae
	Birnaviridae
	Bromoviridae
	Bunyaviridae
	Caliciviridae
	Caulimoviridae
	Chrysoviridae
	Circoviridae
	Closteroviridae
	Corticoviridae
	Cystoviridae
	Endornaviridae
	Flaviviridae
	Fuselloviridae
	Geminiviridae
	Globuloviridae
	Guttaviridae
	Hepadnaviridae
	Hepeviridae
	Hypoviridae
	Inoviridae
	Iridoviridae
	Leviviridae
	Lipothrixviridae
	Luteoviridae
	Metaviridae
	Microviridae
	Mimiviridae
	Nanoviridae
	Narnaviridae
	Nimaviridae
	Nodaviridae
	Ophioviridae
	Orthomyxoviridae
	Papillomaviridae
	Partitiviridae
	Parvoviridae
	Phycodnaviridae
	Picobirnaviridae
	Plasmaviridae
	Polydnaviridae
	Polyomaviridae
	Pospiviroidae
	Potyviridae
	Poxviridae
	Pseudoviridae
	Reoviridae
	Retroviridae
	Rudiviridae
	Tectiviridae
	Tetraviridae
	Togaviridae
	Tombusviridae
	Totiviridae
	Virgaviridae