Myoviridae

The Myoviridae is a family of bacteriophages in the order Caudovirales. Bacteria and archaea serve as natural hosts. There are currently 93 species in this family, divided among four subfamilies and 30 genera. The subfamily Tevenvirinae (synonym: Teequatrovirinae) is named after its type species Enterobacteria phage T4. Members of this subfamily are morphologically indistinguishable and have moderately elongated heads of about 110 nanometers (nm) in length, 114 nm long tails with a collar, base plates with short spikes and six long kinked tail fibers. The genera within this subfamily are divided on the basis of head morphology with the genus T4virus having a head length of 137 nm and those in the genus Schizot4virus being 111 nm in length. Within the genera on the basis of protein homology the species have been divided into a number of groups.