VIRUSES

- Viruses are nonliving particles: They are not cells and

do not exhibit all the criteria for life.
- Very small: ½ to 1/100 the size of the smallest
bacterium can only been seen with an electron
microscope
- All viruses can do is replicate and they can’t do that
without the help of a host cell.
- Naming Viruses
o After the disease they cause (ex: Rabies virus)
o For the organ or tissue they infect
o Today, they are given a genus name enduing in the
word “virus” and a species name. Code numbers
are used to distinguish among similar viruses that
infect the same host.
- Viral Structure
o Inner core of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) and
an outer coat of protein called a capsid.
o Some viruses have an envelope surrounding their
capsid. They are composed of the same materials of
a cell’s plasma membrane.
o Four Different Viral Shapes:
 Polyhedral Viruses (ex: Papilloma viruses that
causes worts)
 Helical Shape (ex: Tobacco Mosaic Virus)
 An envelope studded with projections (ex:
AIDS)
 Bacteriophage- virus that infects a bacterium;
polyhedral-shaped head attached to a
cylindrical tail with leglike fibers (ex: T4 virus
that infects E. coli)
- Attachment- A virus attached to a host cell when one of
its proteins interlocks with a receptor site on the host
cell’s plasma membrane.
o Viruses are species specific and some are also cell-
type specific (ex: polio infects only human
intestinal and nerve cells)
o Significant for controlling the spread of viral
diseases
- Viral Replication Cycles
o Once a virus has attached to the host cell, it has 2
ways of getting in:
 The virus can inject its nucleic acid into the
host cell like a syringe
 Enveloped virus: The plasma membrane of the
host cell surrounds the virus and produces a
virus-filled vacuole inside the host cell’s
cytoplasm. The vacuole then burst and releases
its nucleic acid into the cell.
o Lytic Cycle: A virus uses the host cell’s energy and
raw materials to make new viruses.
 Takes about 30 minutes and produces 200
new viruses
 Host cell then bursts, killing it, and the new
viruses can then inject and kill other host cells
o Lysogenic Cycle: Virus’s nucleic acid is integrated
into the host cell’s chromosomes
 Viral DNA that is integrated into the
chromosome is called a provirus.
• May not affect the functioning of its host
cell, but everytime the host cell
reproduces, the provirus is replicated
along with the host cell’s chromosome.
 • At any time, the provirus can be activated
and enter a lytic cycle. Scientists do not
know what causes them to become
activate- could be physical or emotional
stress
- Retroviruses
o Viruses that contain RNA as their nucleic acid
o Once inside a host cell, the retrovirus makes DNA
from its RNA
o Use reverse transcriptase (enzyme) to do this-
located inside capsid
o The double-stranded DNA is then inserted into the
host cell’s chromosome and becomes a provirus
o Example: HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)
 Infects white blood cells, which are used in
fighting off infections and disease
 AIDS patients usually die of infections that a
healthy person would normally resist
 Transmitting in body fluids
- Some viruses can cause cancer
- Plant Viruses
o First plant virus to be identified was the tobacco
mosaic virus
o 400 viruses that infect plants, causing as many as
1000 diseases
o Can be beneficial- cause striking patterns of color
in the flowers of plants (tulips, gladioli, and
pansies)
- Prions: Particles composed of proteins and have no
nucleic acids (still infectious)
o Influence how proteins fold into their active shape
o Example: Mad cow disease (destroys brain)
- Viroid: single strand of RNA that has no capsid
o Infectious disease agents in plants (affects
cucumbers, potatoes, oranges)
 Important Viral Diseases
How the disease
Disease Symptoms
is transmitted
Blisters, rash, muscle soreness,
Chickenpox Inhalation
fever
Fever, chills, fatigue, sore throat,
Influenza Inhalation
muscle aches, weakness, headache
Rash, swollen glands, fever, fatal to
Rubella developing infant in pregnant Inhalation
woman
Mumps Painful swelling in salivary glands Inhalation
Blisters, lesions, fever, malaise,
Smallpox blindness, disfiguring scars; often Inhalation
fatal
Fever, chills, nausea, swollen liver,
Contaminated blood,
Hepatitis A and B yellow skin, painful joints, liver
food, or water
cancer
Fever, headache, stiff neck, Contaminated food
Polio
possible paralysis or water
Sexual contact,
contaminated blood,
AIDS Immune system failure; fatal
or contaminated
needles
Sinus congestion, muscle aches, Inhalation, direct
Cold
cough, fever contact
Mental depression, fever,
Bite of infected
Rabies restlessness, difficulty swallowing,
animal
paralysis, convulsions; fatal