ABSTRACT
Rhabdoviruses are pervasive infectious agents of plants and animals and are generally transmitted by arthropod vectors. These viruses share common morphological and ultrastructural features and appear as rod-shaped particles 60 to 400 nm long by 60 to 85 nm wide which have an internal core nucleocapsid surrounded by an envelope with protruding spikes. Analysis by electron microscopy of detergent-released vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) nucleocapsid revealed a ribbon-like helically coiled structure with evenly spaced repeating units of N protein along a single strand of RNA. Varying degrees of antigenic relatedness are known to exist among the VSV subgroups of rhabdoviruses, although recent serologic, genetic, and molecular studies revealed considerable divergence among the members. The low content of basic amino acids and the high proportion of acidic residues in the major nucleocapsid protein N was not totally unexpected, because others have reported similar results for the nucleocapsid protein of Newcastle disease virus and influenza virus.
