<italic>Inoviruses</italic>—the neglected “lurkers” in prokaryotic viruses

Abstract

Inoviruses are highly diverse and globally prevalent, and the prokaryotes they infect cover almost all bacteria phyla, even including some archaea. After nearly sixty years of study on the typical Inoviruses represented by M13 and CTXΦ, it has been shown to possess unique biological characteristics (e.g. chronic infection) as well as important application value. In this reviews, we firstly summarized the isolation and environmental distributions of Inoviruses, and then described their genome feature, virion structure, life cycle, induction and regulatory mechanism, the physiological influences on their hosts, and their applications in different fields. Finally, prospects and directions for future investigation are proposed based on current situation of Inovirus research. We believe that further study on Inoviruses will significantly promote the understanding of prokaryotic virus-host interactions and their potential ecological functions, Meanwhile, these efforts will undoubtedly expand the depth and range of the application of Inoviruses in the field of human health and environmental science.