Renaming of the genus Flavivirus to Orthoflavivirus and extension of binomial species names within the family Flaviviridae

AbstractThis review provides a summary of the recently ratified changes to genus and species nomenclature within the virus familyFlaviviridae along with reasons for these changes. First, it was considered that the vernacular terms “flaviviral”, “flavivirus”, and “flaviviruses” could under certain circumstances be ambiguous due to the same word stem “flavi” in the taxon namesFlaviviridae andFlavivirus; these terms could either have referred to all viruses classified in the familyFlaviviridae or only to viruses classified in the included genusFlavivirus. To remove this ambiguity, the genus nameFlavivirus was changed toOrthoflavivirus by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Second, all species names in the family were changed to adhere to a newly ICTV-mandated binomial format (e.g.,Orthoflavivirus zikaense,Hepacivirus hominis) similar to nomenclature conventions used for species elsewhere in biology. It is important to note, however, that virus names remain unchanged. Here we outline the revised taxonomy of the familyFlaviviridae as approved by the ICTV in April 2023.

Source: Archives of Virology - August 10, 2023 Category: Virology Source Type: research