Luisa Rubino, Senior Researcher at the National Research Council (CNR), Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP), via Amendola, 165/a, 70126-Bari,

The principles of modern taxonomy were established in the 18th century by Carl Linnaeus, aiming at the hierarchical classification of biological organisms based of their different characters, by grouping organisms sharing similar features in taxa. These principles apply also to virus taxonomy.

Recognized international organizations are in charge of the classification and nomenclature of taxa. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), formerly the International Committee on Nomenclature of Viruses, founded in 1966, is responsible for developing and maintaining an internationally agreed system of hierarchical classification of viruses and naming of taxa. The ICTV oversees also the classification of other mobile genetic elements including satellite nucleic acids, viriforms and viroids.

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