Published in:
01-08-2003 | Original Investigation
Virology and epidemiology of oral herpesvirus infections
Published in: Medical Microbiology and Immunology | Issue 3/2003
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Herpesviruses are widely disseminated throughout the animal kingdom. The enveloped herpesvirus particles are pleomorphic with an overall diameter ranging from 120 to 300 nm. The virion consists of four structural elements as revealed by electron microscopy and illustrated in Fig. 1. Inside an electron-opaque core, there is the packaged linear double-stranded DNA genome with a molecular mass of between 80 and 150 million Daltons depending on the species.
Fig. 1.
Herpesvirus morphology. Left: Electron micrograph of a typical herpesvirus particle; right: schematic representation of herpes virion