RNA HELICAL VIRUS MNEMONIC

ORIGINAL MNEMONIC BY RAFI ALI (CLASS OF 1997)

Adapted and Illustrated By Charles DeMello Schutt USF MCOM CO 2016
(Not for profit)
You are a mail man/woman who has been assigned to deliver an ENVELOPE to the helical family. You notice something right off the bat, they all live in this very
negative home called "Helical House So helical RNA viruses are:
(1) Negative () sense (with one exception)
(2) Enveloped. (You are delivering an envelope to the helical household.)
What does () sense mean? The viral RNA must be acted upon by a transcriptase to make viral mRNA. Therefore, this requires the nucleus for its replication! Refer to
First Aid pg 161.2014
Story Additional Notes
1) You walk up to the Helical house and notice the door is shaped like a
Bullet. Guarding the door is a vicious dog foaming from the mouth. Yes,
the first room in the helical house contains the RHABDO viruses and
they have bullet shaped virons .
-Rabies virus
2) You continue through the house and come to the second room. The first
of two brothers, ORTHOMYXO. When we think of Orthomyxo, we
think "O" and an Octopus immediately comes to mind. An Octopus has
eight legs, like Orthomyxo viruses have eight segments. Notice the stars
in the eyes. Remember the star path from the icosahedral viruses. In this
case, the Orthomyxo viruses (which is only influenza), even though it is
negative sense, replicates in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm.
-orthomyxo (Influenza A,
B,C), ISA, Thogoto,
-8 segments
-
3) You continue up the stairs and you find a massive giant, he tells you to
stop because he wants you to listen to a PAIR of MIX tapes he made.
Thats right, he represents the PARAMYXO viruses. Why is he giant?
Well, paramyxo viruses are known to cause formations of giant cells!
-Paramyxo (Measels,
Mumps, Respiratory
Syncitial viruses, and
parainfluenza.)
4) You move on, to the 3
rd
room to find some illegal activity going on.
Yes, RAT fighting. There is a huge ARENA set up and two rats stand on
separate ends of the SEGMENTED Circular ARENA. They are tied up
with a LASSO and kept away from each other till the fight is ready to
start. Thats right, This is the ARENA viruses, they have 2 segments,
Circular RNA, they usually infect rodents and occasionally humans, and
LASSO= Lasa virus that is very serious and can cause Lassa
hemorrhagic fever.
Arena Virus (A LOT:
Classified into Old World
and New world).
-Lassa : well-known Old
world virus
5) There is too much negativity in this house! You decide to step out for
some fresh air and meet a very POSITIVE young man who is having a
good time and dancing, he offers you a CARONA. You decide, What
the hell, Ill take a break! Then you realize he is out here because hes
being kept away othersyes, he has Sars.. You drop the corona and
quickly run back inside.
Corona Virus. (+) sense,
enveloped, helical RNA
virus.
Most popular- SARS CAV
6) You find yourself in room 6 and now things get really weird! You find a
BUNNY with a cute round nose and round tail, then you look closer and
see this bunny has 3 EARS! Thats right, this represents BUNYA Virus.
In addition, the bunny has fleas, fleas are arthropods and they transmit
Bunya viruses.
Bunya viruses have 3
segments, Circular RNA and
7) You have traveled all around the house and havent found the owner.
Finally, you reach the last room and find a box marked CLASSIFIED.
You FEEL around the box and see its locked with a caution tape
reading contains dangerous incurable viruses. Yep, these are the FILO
Viruses
Filo Viruses; EBOLA,
MARBUG, hemorrhagic
fever. Often deadly
8) You give up, you drop your envelope and run away from this awful
negative helical house.