| Monopartite | Segmented | Multipartite |
| A normal virus which you all know; i.e. single nucleic acid molecule surrounded by a protein capsid. | Nucleic acid molecule segmented into parts; all parts surrounded by a single protein capsid. | Nucleic acid molecule segmented into parts; each part surrounded by a separate protein capsid. |
| Infection by a single virus is enough to cause disease. | Infection by a single virus is enough to cause disease. | Infection by different viral segments may cause different diseases; sometimes, many viral segments should co-infect to cause a disease. |
| Generally infect all host range | Infect all host range | They also infect almost all host range, but generally infect plants and fungi. |
| Most double-stranded DNA viruses. | This type of genome is found in RNA as well as DNA viruses. | dsDNA viruses are not multipartite. ssDNA and RNA (ds and ss) can be multipartite. |
| Found in viral classes: | Found in viral classes: Orthomyxoviridae, Arenaviridae, Birnaviridae, Cystoviridae, Reoviridae. | Found in viral classes: Bromoviridae, Picornaviridae, Chryosoviridae. Partiviridae, Closteroviridae |
| Specific examples are Mycovirus, Bovine polyomavirus etc. | Specific examples: TMV, cowpea mosaic virus, brome mosaic virus etc. | Specific examples: Picornavirus etc. |
