Distinguishing features 

Herbeviruses were originally isolated from Culex mosquitoes in Africa. Unlike viruses of other genera in the family Peribunyaviridae, herbeviruses do not encode any non-structural proteins, and possess a 500 nt insertion in the RNA-directed RNA polymerase/endonuclease (L) protein ORF and a truncated glycoprotein ORF (Marklewitz et al., 2013). Data from in vitro analyses indicate that herbeviruses are not able to infect vertebrates and so they are considered to be arthropod-specific viruses (Marklewitz et al., 2013).

Virion

Morphology

Mature virions are spherical, enveloped, of 90−110 nm in diameter (Marklewitz et al., 2013).

Nucleic acid

Herbeviruses have the peribunyavirus-typical tripartite, negative-sense genome. The terminal ends have a conserved seven nucleotide sequence (coding sense) 5′-AGTAGTG…CACTACT-3′, whereas the remaining UTR is highly variable in sequence and length (Marklewitz et al., 2013). Similar to orthobunyaviruses, viral mRNA is 5′-capped via cap snatching from host mRNAs and is truncated relative to the vRNA (Marklewitz et al., 2013).

Proteins

Herbevirus genomes encode four structural proteins: L, the glycoproteins Gn and Gc, and the nucleocapsid protein N (Table 2.Peribunyaviridae). These viruses do not encode any non-structural proteins (Marklewitz et al., 2013) (Figure 1.Herbevirus).

Lipids

Virion lipids are derived from host membranes (Marklewitz et al., 2013).

Carbohydrates

The Gn and Gc proteins contain N-linked glycosylation sites and are likely to be modified by N-glycosylation (Marklewitz et al., 2013).

Genome organization and replication

Herbevirus S segments encode a nucleocapsid protein (N) of 225−226 amino acids. Their M segments of 2,683–3,118 nt are about 1.2 kb shorter than the typical orthobunyavirus M segment, corresponding to a 482 amino acid truncation at the N-terminus of the Gc protein. Regions coding for the non-structural protein NSm of other peribunyaviruses have not been described. The L segments are about 500 nt longer than the L segments of orthobunyaviruses and contain a unique conserved region of unknown function upstream of the RdRP motifs (Marklewitz et al., 2013). 

Figure 1.Herbevirus. Herbevirus coding strategy. vcRNAs are depicted in 3'→5' direction and mRNAs are depicted in a 5'→3' direction. The mRNAs depict ORFs that encode the N, nucleocapsid protein; Gn and Gc, external glycoproteins; L, large protein.

Replication of genomes, morphogenesis in the Golgi complex, and virus secretion at the cellular membranes are similar to those of all described peribunyaviruses (see ‘Genome organisation and replication’ on the family page).

Biology 

Herbeviruses were originally isolated from Culex mosquitos in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Uganda. A vertebrate host has not been identified, and in vitro studies have shown restricted growth in cell culture above 31°C (Marklewitz et al., 2015), suggesting these viruses are restricted to mosquitoes (Marklewitz et al., 2013).

Derivation of names

Herbevirus derived from Herbert virus.

Species demarcation criteria

Members of different species in the genus Herbevirus are less than 90% identical in amino acid sequence for the approximately 1 kb sequence fragment containing the core polymerase domain (premotif A to motif E) of the third conserved region of the L protein (Junglen et al., 2016).

Member species

Virus names, the choice of exemplar isolates, and virus abbreviations, are not official ICTV designations.