Herpesvirales

Herpesvirales is an order of double-stranded DNA viruses with animal hosts, placed in Baltimore group I and defined by a shared virion design: an icosahedral capsid enclosed in a lipid envelope that carries glycoproteins. Its members cause common human infections such as cold sores, genital herpes, chickenpox, shingles and glandular fever. The order holds three families, Alloherpesviridae, Malacoherpesviridae and Orthoherpesviridae, which infect fish and frogs, molluscs such as abalone and oysters, and reptiles, birds and mammals respectively. The capsid has T=16 symmetry and measures about 110 nm across, it sits in a protein matrix called the tegument, and the linear double-stranded genome runs from 125 to 290 kilobase pairs. Herpesvirales is the only order in the class Herviviricetes, which is the only class in the phylum Peploviricota.