In 2016, the order Mononegavirales was emended through the addition of two new families (Mymonaviridae and Sunviridae), the elevation of the paramyxoviral subfamily Pneumovirinae to family status (Pneumoviridae), the addition of five free-floating genera (Anphevirus, Arlivirus, Chengtivirus, Crustavirus, and Wastrivirus), and several other changes at the genus and species levels. This article presents the updated taxonomy of the order Mononegavirales as now accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).
The viral order Mononegavirales was established in 1991 to accommodate related viruses with nonsegmented, linear, single-stranded negative-sense RNA genomes. These viruses were initially assigned to three mononegaviral families: Filoviridae, Paramyxoviridae, and Rhabdoviridae [20, 21]. In subsequent years, these families continued to grow through the inclusion of numerous novel species and genera, and the order was therefore emended in 1995 , 1997 , 2000 , 2005 , and 2011 . The families Bornaviridae and Nyamiviridae joined the other three mononegaviral families in 1996  and 2014 [1, 11], respectively. In 2015, the Study Groups of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) responsible for the taxonomy of the order and its five families embarked on a joint effort to assign unclassified mononegaviruses to existing or novel taxa and to streamline order nomenclature. Here we present a brief overview of the first round of these efforts, which by now is accepted by the ICTV Executive Committee and, thereby, is official taxonomy.
Taxonomic changes at the order level
In recent years, several mononegaviruses have been described that are only distantly related to the members of the families Bornaviridae, Filoviridae, Nyamiviridae, Paramyxoviridae, and Rhabdoviridae. These viruses include Sclerotinia sclerotiorum negative-stranded RNA virus 1 (SsNSRV-1) found in an ascomycete in China ; Sunshine Coast virus (SunCV; previously called Sunshine virus) isolated from Australian carpet pythons ; and Líshí spider virus 2 (LsSV-2), Sānxiá water strider virus 4 (SxWSV-4), Tǎchéng tick virus 6 (TcTV-6), Wēnzhōu crab virus 1 (WzCV-1), and Xīnchéng mosquito virus (XcMV) detected in Chinese arthropods . To accommodate these viruses in the order and to appropriately reflect their phylogenetic relationships to other mononegaviral taxa, two new families and four free-floating genera were established: Mymonaviridae (accommodating SsNSRV-1), Sunviridae (SunCV), Anphevirus (XcMV), Arlivirus (LsSV-2), Chengtivirus (TcTV-6), Crustavirus (WzCV-1), and Wastrivirus (SxWSV-4). In addition, the paramyxoviral subfamily Pneumovirinae was elevated to family status (Pneumoviridae) because the members of this taxon are as closely related to filoviruses as to the members of the paramyxoviral subfamily Paramxyovirinae (now dissolved) (Table 1).
Taxonomic changes at the family level
The monogeneric family Bornaviridae was reorganized in 2015 by establishing five distinct species in the genus Bornavirus [2, 12] following a non-Latinized binomial species name format . These efforts were continued in 2016 by expanding the genus by an additional two species (Elapid 1 bornavirus for Loveridge’s garter snake virus 1  and Psittaciform 2 bornavirus for parrot bornavirus 5 [9, 18]) (Table 1).
The monogeneric family Nyamiviridae was expanded to include a second genus (Socyvirus) for the until-then free-floating nyamivirus species Soybean cyst nematode virus. This species name was changed to Soybean cyst nematode socyvirus to adhere to the non-Latinized binomial species name format  (Table 1).
The family Paramyxoviridae was emended by expanding the genus Avulavirus by three species (Avian paramyxovirus 10-12 for avian paramyxoviruses 10-12, respectively [5, 19, 28]), the genus Henipavirus by three species (Cedar henipavirus for Cedar virus , Ghanaian bat henipavirus for Kumasi virus [GH-M74a] , and Mojiang henipavirus for Mòjiāng virus ), the genus Morbillivirus by one species (Feline morbillivirus for feline morbillivirus ) and the genus Respirovirus by one species (Porcine parainfluenza virus 1 for porcine parainfluenza virus 1 ). The species Simian Virus 10 was dissolved on the evidence that simian virus 10 is an isolate of human parainfluenzavirus 3 rather than a distinct virus . The genus Pneumovirus, now included in the new family Pneumoviridae, was renamed Orthopneumovirus to avoid confusion between family and genus members (Table 1).
The family Rhabdoviridae was expanded by two genera: Dichorhavirus (new; ) and Varicosavirus (previously free-floating outside of the order) to accommodate bisegmented plant viruses (coffee ringspot virus and orchid fleck virus; lettuce big-vein associated virus). The species Alfalfa dwarf cytorhabdovirus (for alfalfa dwarf virus ) was added to the genus Cytorhabdovirus. Finally, the non-Latinized binomial species name format  was applied throughout the family (Table 1).
A summary of the current, ICTV-accepted taxonomy of the order Mononegavirales is presented in Table 1.
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We thank Laura Bollinger (NIH/NIAID Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD, USA) for critically editing the manuscript.
Thomas Briese, Ralf Dürrwald, Masayuki Horie, Jens H. Kuhn, Norbert Nowotny, Susan L. Payne, Dennis Rubbenstroth, Martin Schwemmle, Keizo Tomonaga: The members of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Bornaviridae Study Group; Gaya K. Amarasinghe, Christopher F. Basler, Sina Bavari, Alexander Bukreyev, Kartik Chandran, Olga Dolnik, John M. Dye, Hideki Ebihara, Pierre Formenty, Roger Hewson, Gary P. Kobinger, Jens H. Kuhn, Eric M. Leroy, Elke Mühlberger, Sergey V. Netesov, Jean L. Patterson, Janusz T. Paweska, Sophie J. Smither, Ayato Takada, Jonathan S. Towner, Viktor E. Volchkov, Victoria Wahl-Jensen: The members of the ICTV Filoviridae Study Group; Ralf G. Dietzgen, Andrew J. Easton, Jens H. Kuhn, Gael Kurath, Norbert Nowotny, Bertus K. Rima, Dennis Rubbenstroth, Nikos Vasilakis, Peter J. Walker: The members of the ICTV Mononegavirales Study Group; Ralf G. Dietzgen, Leslie L. Domier, Elodie Ghedin, Dàohóng Jiāng, Jens H. Kuhn, Nikos Vasilakis, David Wang: The members of the ICTV Nyamiviridae Study Group; Peter L. Collins, Andrew J. Easton, Ron A. M. Fouchier, Gael Kurath, Robert A. Lamb, Andrea Maisner, Rick E. Randall, Bertus K. Rima, Paul Rota, Lin-Fa Wang: The members of the ICTV Paramyxoviridae Study Group; Kim R. Blasdell, Charles H. Calisher, Ralf G. Dietzgen, Hideki Kondo, Gael Kurath, Ben Longdon, David M. Stone, Robert B. Tesh, Noël Tordo, Nikos Vasilakis, Peter J. Walker, Anna E. Whitfield: The members of the ICTV Rhabdoviridae Study Group.
The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the US Department of the Army, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) or of the institutions and companies affiliated with the authors. In no event shall any of these entities have any responsibility or liability for any use, misuse, inability to use, or reliance upon the information contained herein. The US departments do not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.
This work was supported in part through Battelle Memorial Institute’s prime contract with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under Contract No. HHSN272200700016I. A subcontractor to Battelle Memorial Institute who performed this work is: J. H. K., an employee of Tunnell Government Services, Inc. This work was also funded in part under Contract No. HSHQDC-07-C-00020 awarded by DHS S&T for the management and operation of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (V. W.-J.); and National Institutes of Health (NIH) contract HHSN272201000040I/HHSN27200004/D04 (N. V., R. B. T.). Y. B. was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Library of Medicine.
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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
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Afonso, C.L., Amarasinghe, G.K., Bányai, K. et al. Taxonomy of the order Mononegavirales: update 2016. Arch Virol 161, 2351–2360 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-016-2880-1
- Soybean Cyst Nematode
- Garter Snake
- Taxonomic Change
- Orchid Fleck Virus