ABSTRACT
The Parvoviridae, or parvovirus family, consists of a large number of physically and chemically similar viruses which infect many animal species. The parvoviruses of vertebrates are divided into two genera whose properties are compared. This chapter concentrates on describing the characteristics of the autonomously replicating parvoviruses of vertebrates, their structure, genetic strategy, and virus host cell interactions. Parvoviruses are isometric, nonenveloped particles, 20 to 25 nm in diameter, which contain a single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) genome of around 5000 nucleotides. Classically, parvoviruses were identified and differentiated from each other by the specificity of the antigenic determinants exhibited on their intact capsids. The limited genetic capacity of the parvoviral genome, and the fact that these viruses depend upon host function expressed transiently during the S-phase of the cell cycle, implies that for many aspects of their DNA replication parvoviruses depend upon the synthetic machinery of the cell.
