MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY OF FISH VIRUSES - A REVIEW

The goal of this review is to present some of the recent molecular asp ects in the fish virus studies. Although more than 50 different fish v irus have been isolated and tissue-culture adapted, very few of them h ave been molecularly cloned and sequenced. Five virus families have be en mostly studied: Birnaviridae, the prototype being the infectious pa ncreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), and the channel catfish virus (CCV) be longing to the Herpesviridae family. In the Iridoviridae family, the f ish lymphocystis disease virus (FLDV) is the most studied. Retrovirida e have been recently isolated and studied. The last family is the Rhab doviridae, in which infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) and viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) have been extensively studi ed.