Introduction

Taxonomic Structure of the Family

Family	Podoviridae
Genus	“T7-like Viruses”
Genus	“P22-like Viruses”
Genus	“29-like Viruses”

Distinguishing Features

Virions have short, noncontractile tails about 20 8  nm in dimension. Heads are assembled first and tail subunits are added to the completed head. Genera are differentiated by genome organization, mechanisms of DNA packaging and presence or absence of DNA or RNA polymerases.