= Rhabdoviridae
{c}
<Rhabdoviridae> is a family of <Negative-sense RNA> <viruses> that includes <vesicular stomatitis virus>. Many particles have a characteristic bullet-like or rod-like form with a <viral envelope>, but neither that shape nor an envelope is universal across the family. The official report also distinguishes the common single-molecule genome from members with two or three segments.<Rhabdoviridae report by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses>[Summary and Table 1, morphology and genome organization]{ref}
The family illustrates why a useful example must not become an absolute definition. Recognizing a bullet-shaped particle supplies structural evidence; classification also uses genome organization and <phylogenetics>. Different members infect animals or plants, so one host or transmission pattern cannot stand for all of them.<Rhabdoviridae report by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses>[Summary, host range and sequence-based relationships]{ref}
A classic mechanistic experiment used <vesicular stomatitis virus>. In 1970, researchers detected particle-associated <RNA-dependent RNA polymerase> activity that generated RNA complementary to the viral genome.<Ribonucleic acid synthesis of vesicular stomatitis virus, II. An RNA polymerase in the virion by D. Baltimore and others>[Abstract, carried polymerase and complementary product]{ref} This supported an explanation of how an incoming negative-sense genome can initiate transcription, rather than assuming that its genomic RNA is already an ordinary protein-coding message.
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