The molecular biology of peste des petits ruminants virus

Abstract

Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) is a negative-strand RNA virus with a monosegmented genome of length 15,948 and containing 6 genes. This chapter reviews our current knowledge of the structure and function of the genome and the six structural and three non-structural proteins produced by the virus. Although PPRV has itself been relatively little studied, the similarities between morbilliviruses allow us to deduce much about the life cycle of the virus at the molecular level. At the same time, it has become clear that there is a lot about the interaction of the virus with the host cell, and particularly the factors that restrict the host range in which the virus can cause disease, that remain to be worked-out.