Advances in Tetravirus Research: New Insight Into the Infectious Virus Lifecycle and an Expanding Host Range.

Tetraviruses are a group of relatively unknown small RNA viruses with particles that display a characteristic =4 capsid architecture. Tetraviruses are classified into three families, the , and , according to the divergent characteristics of their respective viral replicases. Tetraviruses generally infect the larvae of lepidopteran insect species, many of which are important agricultural pests and, until recently, were thought to have an unusually narrow host range and tissue tropism.

Providence virus: An animal virus that replicates in plants or a plant virus that infects and replicates in animal cells?

Introduction: Emerging viral diseases, most of which are zoonotic, pose a significant threat to global health. There is a critical need to identify potential new viral pathogens and the challenge is to identify the reservoirs from which these viruses might emerge. Deep sequencing of invertebrate transcriptomes has revealed a plethora of viruses, many of which represent novel lineages representing both plant and animal viruses and little is known about the potential threat that these viruses pose.