Geminiviridae

Geminiviridae
Purified Maize streak virus (MSV) particles stained with uranyl acetate. Size bar indicates 50 nm.
Virus classification
(unranked):	Virus
Realm:	Monodnaviria
Kingdom:	Shotokuvirae
Phylum:	Cressdnaviricota
Class:	Repensiviricetes
Order:	Geplafuvirales
Family:	Geminiviridae
Genera
See text

Geminiviridae is a family of plant viruses that encode their genetic information on a circular genome of single-stranded (ss) DNA. There are 520 species in this family, assigned to 14 genera.^[1][2][3] Diseases associated with this family include: bright yellow mosaic, yellow mosaic, yellow mottle, leaf curling, stunting, streaks, reduced yields.^[2][4] They have single-stranded circular DNA genomes encoding genes that diverge in both directions from a virion strand origin of replication (i.e. geminivirus genomes are ambisense). According to the Baltimore classification they are considered class II viruses. It is the largest known family of single stranded DNA viruses.

Mastrevirus and curtovirus transmission is via various leafhopper species (e.g. maize streak virus and other African streak viruses are transmitted by Cicadulina mbila), the only known topocuvirus species, Tomato pseudo-curly top virus, is transmitted by the treehopper Micrutalis malleifera, and begomoviruses are transmitted by the whitefly species, Bemisia tabaci.

These viruses are responsible for a significant amount of crop damage worldwide. Epidemics of geminivirus diseases have arisen due to a number of factors, including the recombination of different geminiviruses coinfecting a plant, which enables novel, possibly virulent viruses to be developed. Other contributing factors include the transport of infected plant material to new locations, expansion of agriculture into new growing areas, and the expansion and migration of vectors that can spread the virus from one plant to another.^[5]