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Lytic and Lysogenic Pathways

Once inside its host cell, a virus
can pursue a lytic or lysogenic
pathway
o Lets look first at the lytic
pathway as it pertains to a
bacteriophage

The Lytic Pathway
As we saw previously, the
bacteriophage latches onto the
host cell and injects its viral code
o This marks the beginning
of the latent period and
the eclipse period
Inside the host, the viral
DNA/RNA replicates itself
Using resources from the cell,
new full-fledged viruses form
o The formation of the first
full virus ends the eclipse
period
Ultimately, the bacterium will
become over-packed with
bacteriophages
o At this point, the cell will
either:
Break open in a
process known as
lysis, or
Release viruses
one-at-a-time
o This marks the end of the
latent period
The viruses released during lysis
can go infect other cells
o Thereby repeating the
cycle
A virus that infects using the
lytic cycle is said to be virulent


The Lytic Cycle
(a) A bacteriophage (red) latches onto a
bacterium (yellow). (b) The bacteriophage
injects its viral DNA (red ring) into the
bacterium. (c) The viral DNA replicates using
the bacteriums reproductive machinery. (d)
Using resources from the cell, full fledged
viruses develop within the cell. (e) When the cell
has become overly-populated, it lyses, thereby
releasing the newly-formed viruses. (f) Those
viruses can go infect new cells.

The Lysogenic Pathway
A virus that follows the
lysogenic pathway is said to be
temperate
The virus infects the cell, like,
before
o But this time, the viral
code is incorporated into
the host cells DNA


(a) (b)
Incorporation of Viral DNA into the Host
Genome
In the lysogenic pathway, the viral code injected
in (a) is injected along with restriction enzymes.
These enzymes help cut open the bacterial DNA,
allowing the viral DNA to become inserted, as
shown in (b).

Viral Pathways | MCAT
J Co Review, Inc., Accessed by jadie2@mac.com on 06-01-2014

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If the virus contains DNA, that
DNA is introduced to the host
genome via restriction enzymes
If the virus contains RNA, it may
also be injected with the enzyme
reverse transcriptase
o This allows the RNA to
be transcribed to DNA
Thus allowing it
to be inserted into
the host genome


Incorporation of Viral RNA into the Host
Genome
Viruses that contain RNA (right) tend to also
inject the enzyme reverse transcriptase. This
allows the RNA to be converted to DNA
(arrow). The DNA can then be inserted into the
host genome.

When the host cell undergoes
natural replication, the viral
DNA will be replicated, too
Once incorporated, the viral
DNA might remain in a dormant
or latent stage, such that it has no
apparent effect on the cell
o Such a virus is said to be
a provirus, or a prophage
Eventually, some environmental
stress will activate the viral DNA
o This converts the virus
into a virulent virus
In other words,
the virus moves
into the lytic cycle
o In this respect, the
lysogenic cycle is an
offshoot of the lytic cycle


The Lysogenic Cycle
After the bacteriophage has injected into viral
code into the cell, (a) that code is incorporated
into the host cells genome. (b) When that host
cell replicates, the viral DNA will replicate along
with it. The viral DNA will remain dormant until
a particular environmental stress moves it back
into the lytic cycle.

Types of Viral Code
Viruses can be somewhat diverse
in the genetic code they carry
+ strand RNA Like mRNA, +
strand RNA can readily be:
o Transcribed to proteins
o Reverse-transcribed to
DNA via reverse
transcriptase
Viruses that
reverse-transcribe
RNA to DNA are
called retroviruses
- strand RNA The complement
of mRNA
o It must be converted to +
strand RNA before it can
be utilized
Viruses may also have double
stranded RNA (or, of course,
DNA)
Viral Pathways | MCAT
J Co Review, Inc., Accessed by jadie2@mac.com on 06-01-2014