Morphogenesis and fine structure of eel virus (Berlin), a member of the proposed Birnavirus group.

Eel Virus (Berlin) is associated with the occurrence of skin tumors in European eels. The genome of the virus consists of two segments of double-stranded (ds) RNA. The agent is assembled exclusively in the cytoplasm. Isometric particles with a diameter of 61 nm and in addition tubular structures and smaller particles were observed. The virion has a single shell: its capsid is composed of 132 interconnected morphological units with T = 13 dextro symmetry. According to particle size and bipartite nature of the genome, this virus has to be assigned to the tentatively proposed group of bisegmented ds RNA animal viruses.