VLPs are not infectious like normal virions, but they nevertheless make up an essential part of the pseudoviral lifecycle.

[2] Pseudoviridae is unofficially classified under group VI RNA Reverse Transcribing Viruses and infect fungi and invertebrates.

Pseudoviridae is included in the order Ortervirales along with families Belpaoviridae, Metaviridae, Retroviridae, and Caulimoviridae.

[3] The family includes the following genera:[2] Further Pseudoviridae species not classified into a genus are: The genome of viruses from this family is unsegmented, -RT, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA and is 4200–9700 nucleotides long.

The genome encodes structural proteins and non-structural proteins which codes for an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase, replicase, and reverse transcriptase for the reverse transcription step during replication.