Avihepadnavirus [SEP] parent taxon
Avihepadnavirus
Avihepadnavirus is a genus of viruses, in the family Hepadnaviridae. Birds serve as natural hosts. There are several species in this genus including the type species "Duck hepatitis B virus". Diseases associated with this genus include: hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinomas (chronic infections), and cirrhosis.
Structure.
Viruses in Avihepadnavirus are enveloped, with spherical geometries, and T=4 symmetry. The diameter is around 42 nm. Genomes are circular, around 3.2kb in length. The genome codes for 7 proteins.
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of