There is a good chance that more species and genera will be added to the family Belpaoviridae in the future, given the diversity of belpaovirids that is already recognized.

[3] The genus is made up of long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons, also referred to as metazoan-infecting reverse transcriptase viruses.

Priming the synthesis of the proviral DNA strand is a polypurine tract of approximately 10 nt located upstream of the 3′-LTR.

However, belpaovirids most likely replicate by forming virus-like particles (VLPs), just like retrovirids, metavirids, and pseudovirids do, since they encode a Gag polyprotein with nucleocapsid and capsid protein domains homologous to those of other members of the order Ortervirales.

[10] Although the details of replication are not well known, it is thought to resemble that of members of the Metaviridae family,[11] in which RT mediates the conversion of a full transcript into a dsDNA that is incorporated into the host genome by the integrase protein.

The new viral RNAs are then reverse-transcribed by RT into dsDNA molecules, which are then sent back to the nucleus and inserted into fresh locations within the host cell genome.