The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and numbering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new-truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, bio- chemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This...

The viruses of the family Rhabdoviridae have an exceedingly broad host range and are widely distributed throughout the animal and plant king- doms. Animal rhabdoviruses infect and often cause disease in insects, fish, and mammals, including man. The prototype rhabdovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus VSV), has been extensively studied and provides perhaps the best model system for studying negative-strand viruses. The popularity of VSV as a model system is to a considerable extent due to its relative simplicity and to its rapid growth, generally to high titer, in many cell types ranging from...

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, biochemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This...