Abbreviations

In addition to universally accepted abbreviations such as DNA and RNA, it is common practice to use abbreviations for virological and technical words in virology. In the Report, we have adopted commonly used abbreviations (e.g. CP for capsid protein and NC for nucleocapsid). These have been approved by the Executive Committee of ICTV for use in the ICTV Report but have no official status. The abbreviations will be used without definition throughout the book, except in a few instances where Study Group conventions (e.g. C in place of CP for capsid protein) dictate different practice. In these instances, abbreviations are defined locally.

Immunology
CTL	cytotoxic T lymphocyte
CF	complement fixing
HLA	human leukocyte antigen
IgG, IgM etc.	immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin M, etc.
mAb	monoclonal antibody
MHC	major histocomatibility complex
NK cell	natural killer cell
PBMC	peripheral blood mononuclear cell
T cell	T lymphocyte
Doses
EC50	half maximal effective concentration
IC50	half maximal inhibitory concentration
LD50	half maximal lethal dose
TCID50	half maximal tissue culture infective dose
Molecular biology
cDNA	complementary DNA
DNAse	deoxyribonuclease
ds	double stranded
Hel	helicase
m⁷G	7-methylguanosine (part of the 5′-cap structure of many mRNAs)
mRNA	messenger RNA
Mtr	methyltransferase
5′-NTR, 3′-NTR	5′-nontranslated region, 3′-nontranslated region (use the prime symbol, U+2032)
NES	nuclear export signal
NLS	nuclear localization signal
ORF	open reading frame
Pol	polymerase
Pro	protease
RdRP	RNA-dependent RNA polymerase
RNAse	ribonuclease
ss	single stranded
5′-UTR, 3′-UTR	5′-untranslated region, 3′-untranslated region (use the prime symbol, U+2032)
Organizations
ATCC	American Type Culture Collection
CDC	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
ICTV	International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses
MRC	Medical Research Council (UK)
NIH	National Institutes of Health
WHO	World Health Organization
Techniques
ELISA	enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
ELISPOT	enzyme-linked immunospot assay
FACS	fluorescence-activated cell sorting
FPLC	fast protein liquid chromatography
GFP	green fluorescent protein
HPLC	high performance liquid chromatography
PAGE	polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
PCR	polymerase chain reaction
RT-PCR	reverse transcritase-polymerase chain reaction
RACE	rapid amplification of cDNA ends
RFLP	restriction fragment length polymorphism
TLC	thin layer chromatography
Units
aa	amino acid(s)
bp, kbp	base pair(s), kilobase pair(s)
c.f.u.	colony-forming unit
D	diffusion coefficient
f.f.u.	focus-forming unit
h	hour(s)
kDa	kilodalton (~10⁻²¹g)
min	minutes(s)
m.o.i.	multiplicity of infection
Mr	relative molar mass
nt	nucleotide(s)
p.f.u.	plaque-forming unit
Virology
AIDS	Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CP	capsid/coat protein (unless otherwise defined)
CPE	cytopathic effect
DI	defective interfering
gRNA	genomic RNA
HE	hemagglutinin-esterase
HI	hemagglutination inhibition
IRES	internal ribosome entry site
MP	movement protein
N	nucleoprotein
NC	nucleocapsid
Rep	replication associated protein
RF	replicative form
RI	replicative intermediate
RNP	ribonucleoprotein
RT	reverse transcriptase
sgRNA	subgenomic RNA
(+) strand RNA	positive strand RNA (mRNA sense)
(-) strand RNA	negative strand RNA (non-mRNA sense)
T (e.g. T3)	triangulation number
VPg	genome-linked protein