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72-397: Escherichia virus HK97 , often shortened to HK97, is a species of virus that infects Escherichia coli and related bacteria . It is named after Hong Kong (HK), where it was first located. HK97 has a double-stranded DNA genome. The major capsid protein of HK97, called gp5, cross-links upon maturation to form a chain-mail like structure. While DNA is being packaged into the capsid,

144-406: A host cell is often forced to rapidly produce thousands of copies of the original virus. When not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell, viruses exist in the form of independent viral particles, or virions , consisting of (i) genetic material , i.e., long molecules of DNA or RNA that encode the structure of the proteins by which the virus acts; (ii) a protein coat,

216-425: A virion , consists of nucleic acid surrounded by a protective coat of protein called a capsid . These are formed from protein subunits called capsomeres . Viruses can have a lipid "envelope" derived from the host cell membrane . The capsid is made from proteins encoded by the viral genome and its shape serves as the basis for morphological distinction. Virally-coded protein subunits will self-assemble to form

288-622: A basic optical microscope. In 2013, the Pandoravirus genus was discovered in Chile and Australia, and has genomes about twice as large as Megavirus and Mimivirus. All giant viruses have dsDNA genomes and they are classified into several families: Mimiviridae , Pithoviridae, Pandoraviridae , Phycodnaviridae , and the Mollivirus genus. Some viruses that infect Archaea have complex structures unrelated to any other form of virus, with

360-418: A capsid diameter of 400 nm. Protein filaments measuring 100 nm project from the surface. The capsid appears hexagonal under an electron microscope, therefore the capsid is probably icosahedral. In 2011, researchers discovered the largest then known virus in samples of water collected from the ocean floor off the coast of Las Cruces, Chile. Provisionally named Megavirus chilensis , it can be seen with

432-581: A capsid, in general requiring the presence of the virus genome. Complex viruses code for proteins that assist in the construction of their capsid. Proteins associated with nucleic acid are known as nucleoproteins , and the association of viral capsid proteins with viral nucleic acid is called a nucleocapsid. The capsid and entire virus structure can be mechanically (physically) probed through atomic force microscopy . In general, there are five main morphological virus types: The poxviruses are large, complex viruses that have an unusual morphology. The viral genome

504-639: A cellular structure, which is often seen as the basic unit of life. Viruses do not have their own metabolism and require a host cell to make new products. They therefore cannot naturally reproduce outside a host cell —although some bacteria such as rickettsia and chlamydia are considered living organisms despite the same limitation. Accepted forms of life use cell division to reproduce, whereas viruses spontaneously assemble within cells. They differ from autonomous growth of crystals as they inherit genetic mutations while being subject to natural selection. Virus self-assembly within host cells has implications for

576-493: A different DNA (or RNA) molecule. This can occur when viruses infect cells simultaneously and studies of viral evolution have shown that recombination has been rampant in the species studied. Recombination is common to both RNA and DNA viruses. Coronaviruses have a single-strand positive-sense RNA genome. Replication of the genome is catalyzed by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase . The mechanism of recombination used by coronaviruses likely involves template switching by

648-559: A few species, or broad for viruses capable of infecting many. Viral infections in animals provoke an immune response that usually eliminates the infecting virus. Immune responses can also be produced by vaccines , which confer an artificially acquired immunity to the specific viral infection. Some viruses, including those that cause HIV/AIDS , HPV infection , and viral hepatitis , evade these immune responses and result in chronic infections. Several classes of antiviral drugs have been developed. The English word "virus" comes from

720-549: A fluid, by Wendell Meredith Stanley , and the invention of the electron microscope in 1931 allowed their complex structures to be visualised. Scientific opinions differ on whether viruses are a form of life or organic structures that interact with living organisms. They have been described as "organisms at the edge of life", since they resemble organisms in that they possess genes , evolve by natural selection , and reproduce by creating multiple copies of themselves through self-assembly. Although they have genes, they do not have

792-445: A genome size of only two kilobases; the largest—the pandoraviruses —have genome sizes of around two megabases which code for about 2500 proteins. Virus genes rarely have introns and often are arranged in the genome so that they overlap . In general, RNA viruses have smaller genome sizes than DNA viruses because of a higher error-rate when replicating, and have a maximum upper size limit. Beyond this, errors when replicating render

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864-513: A ladder. The virus particles of some virus families, such as those belonging to the Hepadnaviridae , contain a genome that is partially double-stranded and partially single-stranded. For most viruses with RNA genomes and some with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genomes, the single strands are said to be either positive-sense (called the 'plus-strand') or negative-sense (called the 'minus-strand'), depending on if they are complementary to

936-436: A life form, because they carry genetic material, reproduce, and evolve through natural selection , although they lack some key characteristics, such as cell structure, that are generally considered necessary criteria for defining life. Because they possess some but not all such qualities, viruses have been described as "organisms at the edge of life" and as replicators . Viruses spread in many ways. One transmission pathway

1008-472: A limited range of hosts and many are species-specific. Some, such as smallpox virus for example, can infect only one species—in this case humans, and are said to have a narrow host range . Other viruses, such as rabies virus, can infect different species of mammals and are said to have a broad range. The viruses that infect plants are harmless to animals, and most viruses that infect other animals are harmless to humans. The host range of some bacteriophages

1080-408: A prime target for natural selection. Segmented genomes confer evolutionary advantages; different strains of a virus with a segmented genome can shuffle and combine genes and produce progeny viruses (or offspring) that have unique characteristics. This is called reassortment or 'viral sex'. Genetic recombination is a process by which a strand of DNA (or RNA) is broken and then joined to the end of

1152-557: A resurgence in zoonotic disease across the world. Examples of vector-borne zoonotic diseases include: Many factors affect the incidence of vector-borne diseases. These factors include animals hosting the disease, vectors, and people. Humans can also be vectors for some diseases, such as Tobacco mosaic virus , physically transmitting the virus with their hands from plant to plant. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that control and prevention of vector-borne diseases are emphasizing "Integrated Vector Management (IVM)", which

1224-412: A single viral particle that is released from the cell and is capable of infecting other cells of the same type. Viruses are found wherever there is life and have probably existed since living cells first evolved . The origin of viruses is unclear because they do not form fossils, so molecular techniques are used to infer how they arose. In addition, viral genetic material occasionally integrates into

1296-460: A small part of the total diversity of viruses has been studied. As of 2022, 6 realms, 10 kingdoms, 17 phyla, 2 subphyla, 40 classes, 72 orders, 8 suborders, 264 families, 182 subfamilies , 2,818 genera, 84 subgenera , and 11,273 species of viruses have been defined by the ICTV. The general taxonomic structure of taxon ranges and the suffixes used in taxonomic names are shown hereafter. As of 2022,

1368-605: A wide diversity of sizes and shapes, called ' morphologies '. In general, viruses are much smaller than bacteria and more than a thousand bacteriophage viruses would fit inside an Escherichia coli bacterium's cell. Many viruses that have been studied are spherical and have a diameter between 20 and 300 nanometres . Some filoviruses , which are filaments, have a total length of up to 1400 nm; their diameters are only about 80 nm. Most viruses cannot be seen with an optical microscope , so scanning and transmission electron microscopes are used to visualise them. To increase

1440-553: A wide variety of unusual shapes, ranging from spindle-shaped structures to viruses that resemble hooked rods, teardrops or even bottles. Other archaeal viruses resemble the tailed bacteriophages, and can have multiple tail structures. An enormous variety of genomic structures can be seen among viral species ; as a group, they contain more structural genomic diversity than plants, animals, archaea, or bacteria. There are millions of different types of viruses, although fewer than 7,000 types have been described in detail. As of January 2021,

1512-416: Is a feature of many bacterial and some animal viruses. Some viruses undergo a lysogenic cycle where the viral genome is incorporated by genetic recombination into a specific place in the host's chromosome. The viral genome is then known as a " provirus " or, in the case of bacteriophages a " prophage ". Whenever the host divides, the viral genome is also replicated. The viral genome is mostly silent within

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1584-405: Is a major change in the genome of the virus. This can be a result of recombination or reassortment . The Influenza A virus is highly prone to reassortment; occasionally this has resulted in novel strains which have caused pandemics . RNA viruses often exist as quasispecies or swarms of viruses of the same species but with slightly different genome nucleoside sequences. Such quasispecies are

1656-414: Is an approach that looks at the links between health and environment, optimizing benefits to both. In April 2014, WHO launched a campaign called "Small bite, big threat" to educate people about vector-borne illnesses. WHO issued reports indicating that vector-borne illnesses affect poor people, especially people living in areas that do not have adequate levels of sanitation, drinking water and housing. It

1728-400: Is associated with proteins within a central disc structure known as a nucleoid . The nucleoid is surrounded by a membrane and two lateral bodies of unknown function. The virus has an outer envelope with a thick layer of protein studded over its surface. The whole virion is slightly pleomorphic , ranging from ovoid to brick-shaped. Mimivirus is one of the largest characterised viruses, with

1800-439: Is caused by cessation of its normal activities because of suppression by virus-specific proteins, not all of which are components of the virus particle. The distinction between cytopathic and harmless is gradual. Some viruses, such as Epstein–Barr virus , can cause cells to proliferate without causing malignancy, while others, such as papillomaviruses , are established causes of cancer. Some viruses cause no apparent changes to

1872-478: Is controversy over whether the bornavirus , previously thought to cause neurological diseases in horses, could be responsible for psychiatric illnesses in humans. Vector (epidemiology) Arthropods form a major group of pathogen vectors with mosquitoes , flies , sand flies , lice , fleas , ticks , and mites transmitting a huge number of pathogens. Many such vectors are haematophagous , which feed on blood at some or all stages of their lives. When

1944-512: Is correct. It seems unlikely that all currently known viruses have a common ancestor, and viruses have probably arisen numerous times in the past by one or more mechanisms. The first evidence of the existence of viruses came from experiments with filters that had pores small enough to retain bacteria. In 1892, Dmitri Ivanovsky used one of these filters to show that sap from a diseased tobacco plant remained infectious to healthy tobacco plants despite having been filtered. Martinus Beijerinck called

2016-507: Is first recorded in 1728, long before the discovery of viruses by Dmitri Ivanovsky in 1892. The English plural is viruses (sometimes also vira ), whereas the Latin word is a mass noun , which has no classically attested plural ( vīra is used in Neo-Latin ). The adjective viral dates to 1948. The term virion (plural virions ), which dates from 1959, is also used to refer to

2088-607: Is identical in sequence to the viral mRNA and is thus a coding strand, while negative-sense viral ssDNA is complementary to the viral mRNA and is thus a template strand. Several types of ssDNA and ssRNA viruses have genomes that are ambisense in that transcription can occur off both strands in a double-stranded replicative intermediate. Examples include geminiviruses , which are ssDNA plant viruses and arenaviruses , which are ssRNA viruses of animals. Genome size varies greatly between species. The smallest—the ssDNA circoviruses, family Circoviridae —code for only two proteins and have

2160-431: Is limited to a single strain of bacteria and they can be used to trace the source of outbreaks of infections by a method called phage typing . The complete set of viruses in an organism or habitat is called the virome ; for example, all human viruses constitute the human virome . A novel virus is one that has not previously been recorded. It can be a virus that is isolated from its natural reservoir or isolated as

2232-501: Is not required for capsid assembly. However, studies on the effects of deleting the delta domain of the major capsid protein, or parts of it, indicate that it is essential for assembly. Virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism . Viruses infect all life forms , from animals and plants to microorganisms , including bacteria and archaea . Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are

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2304-475: Is through disease-bearing organisms known as vectors : for example, viruses are often transmitted from plant to plant by insects that feed on plant sap , such as aphids ; and viruses in animals can be carried by blood-sucking insects. Many viruses spread in the air by coughing and sneezing, including influenza viruses , SARS-CoV-2 , chickenpox , smallpox , and measles . Norovirus and rotavirus , common causes of viral gastroenteritis , are transmitted by

2376-400: The capsid , which surrounds and protects the genetic material; and in some cases (iii) an outside envelope of lipids . The shapes of these virus particles range from simple helical and icosahedral forms to more complex structures. Most virus species have virions too small to be seen with an optical microscope and are one-hundredth the size of most bacteria. The origins of viruses in

2448-477: The CD4 molecule—a chemokine receptor —which is most commonly found on the surface of CD4+ T-Cells . This mechanism has evolved to favour those viruses that infect only cells in which they are capable of replication. Attachment to the receptor can induce the viral envelope protein to undergo changes that result in the fusion of viral and cellular membranes, or changes of non-enveloped virus surface proteins that allow

2520-555: The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) was formed. The system proposed by Lwoff, Horne and Tournier was initially not accepted by the ICTV because the small genome size of viruses and their high rate of mutation made it difficult to determine their ancestry beyond order. As such, the Baltimore classification system has come to be used to supplement the more traditional hierarchy. Starting in 2018,

2592-690: The Latin vīrus , which refers to poison and other noxious liquids. Vīrus comes from the same Indo-European root as Sanskrit viṣa , Avestan vīša , and Ancient Greek ἰός ( iós ), which all mean "poison". The first attested use of "virus" in English appeared in 1398 in John Trevisa 's translation of Bartholomeus Anglicus 's De Proprietatibus Rerum . Virulent , from Latin virulentus ('poisonous'), dates to c.  1400 . A meaning of 'agent that causes infectious disease'

2664-490: The NCBI Virus genome database has more than 193,000 complete genome sequences, but there are doubtlessly many more to be discovered. A virus has either a DNA or an RNA genome and is called a DNA virus or an RNA virus , respectively. Most viruses have RNA genomes. Plant viruses tend to have single-stranded RNA genomes and bacteriophages tend to have double-stranded DNA genomes. Viral genomes are circular, as in

2736-605: The big-vein disease of lettuce was long thought to be caused by a member of the fungal division Chytridiomycota , namely Olpidium brassicae . Eventually, however, the disease was shown to be viral. Later it transpired that the virus was transmitted by the zoospores of the fungus and also survived in the resting spores. Since then, many other fungi in Chytridiomycota have been shown to vector plant viruses. Many plant pests that seriously damage important crops depend on other plants, often weeds, to harbour or vector them;

2808-539: The common cold , influenza , chickenpox , and cold sores . Many serious diseases such as rabies , Ebola virus disease , AIDS (HIV) , avian influenza , and SARS are caused by viruses. The relative ability of viruses to cause disease is described in terms of virulence . Other diseases are under investigation to discover if they have a virus as the causative agent, such as the possible connection between human herpesvirus 6 (HHV6) and neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome . There

2880-407: The evolutionary history of life are still unclear. Some viruses may have evolved from plasmids , which are pieces of DNA that can move between cells. Other viruses may have evolved from bacteria. In evolution, viruses are an important means of horizontal gene transfer , which increases genetic diversity in a way analogous to sexual reproduction . Viruses are considered by some biologists to be

2952-422: The faecal–oral route , passed by hand-to-mouth contact or in food or water. The infectious dose of norovirus required to produce infection in humans is fewer than 100 particles. HIV is one of several viruses transmitted through sexual contact and by exposure to infected blood. The variety of host cells that a virus can infect is called its host range : this is narrow for viruses specialized to infect only

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3024-430: The germline of the host organisms, by which they can be passed on vertically to the offspring of the host for many generations. This provides an invaluable source of information for paleovirologists to trace back ancient viruses that existed as far back as millions of years ago. There are three main hypotheses that aim to explain the origins of viruses: In the past, there were problems with all of these hypotheses:

3096-457: The polyomaviruses , or linear, as in the adenoviruses . The type of nucleic acid is irrelevant to the shape of the genome. Among RNA viruses and certain DNA viruses, the genome is often divided into separate parts, in which case it is called segmented. For RNA viruses, each segment often codes for only one protein and they are usually found together in one capsid. All segments are not required to be in

3168-447: The three domains . This discovery has led modern virologists to reconsider and re-evaluate these three classical hypotheses. The evidence for an ancestral world of RNA cells and computer analysis of viral and host DNA sequences give a better understanding of the evolutionary relationships between different viruses and may help identify the ancestors of modern viruses. To date, such analyses have not proved which of these hypotheses

3240-527: The ICTV began to acknowledge deeper evolutionary relationships between viruses that have been discovered over time and adopted a 15-rank classification system ranging from realm to species. Additionally, some species within the same genus are grouped into a genogroup . The ICTV developed the current classification system and wrote guidelines that put a greater weight on certain virus properties to maintain family uniformity. A unified taxonomy (a universal system for classifying viruses) has been established. Only

3312-489: The basis of similarities. In 1962, André Lwoff , Robert Horne , and Paul Tournier were the first to develop a means of virus classification, based on the Linnaean hierarchical system. This system based classification on phylum , class , order , family , genus , and species . Viruses were grouped according to their shared properties (not those of their hosts) and the type of nucleic acid forming their genomes. In 1966,

3384-431: The capsid expands by nearly 5 nm and changes from spherical to icosahedral in shape. The HK97 assembly pathway begins with self-assembly of gp5 into pentamers and hexamers. A protease, called gp4, cleaves gp5 at its N-terminus . Attachment of a portal protein, gp3, coupled with conformational changes leads to the formation of a prohead , or procapsid, which is the precursor to the mature capsid. A scaffolding protein

3456-410: The contrast between viruses and the background, electron-dense "stains" are used. These are solutions of salts of heavy metals, such as tungsten , that scatter the electrons from regions covered with the stain. When virions are coated with stain (positive staining), fine detail is obscured. Negative staining overcomes this problem by staining the background only. A complete virus particle, known as

3528-415: The distinction is not always clear. In the case of Puccinia graminis for example, Berberis and related genera act as alternate hosts in a cycle of infection of grain. More directly, when they twine from one plant to another, parasitic plants such as Cuscuta and Cassytha have been shown to convey phytoplasmal and viral diseases between plants. Rabies is transmitted through exposure to

3600-431: The extreme of the ssRNA virus case. Viruses undergo genetic change by several mechanisms. These include a process called antigenic drift where individual bases in the DNA or RNA mutate to other bases. Most of these point mutations are "silent"—they do not change the protein that the gene encodes—but others can confer evolutionary advantages such as resistance to antiviral drugs . Antigenic shift occurs when there

3672-446: The filtered, infectious substance a "virus" and this discovery is considered to be the beginning of virology. The subsequent discovery and partial characterization of bacteriophages by Frederick Twort and Félix d'Herelle further catalyzed the field, and by the early 20th century many viruses had been discovered. In 1926, Thomas Milton Rivers defined viruses as obligate parasites. Viruses were demonstrated to be particles, rather than

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3744-399: The form of single-stranded nucleoprotein complexes, through pores called plasmodesmata . Bacteria, like plants, have strong cell walls that a virus must breach to infect the cell. Given that bacterial cell walls are much thinner than plant cell walls due to their much smaller size, some viruses have evolved mechanisms that inject their genome into the bacterial cell across the cell wall, while

3816-435: The host). Therefore, the parasites are transmitted directly into the host's blood stream. Pool feeders such as the sand fly and black fly , vectors for pathogens causing leishmaniasis and onchocerciasis respectively, will chew a well in the host's skin, forming a small pool of blood from which they feed. Leishmania parasites then infect the host through the saliva of the sand fly. Onchocerca force their own way out of

3888-406: The host. At some point, the provirus or prophage may give rise to the active virus, which may lyse the host cells. Enveloped viruses (e.g., HIV) typically are released from the host cell by budding . During this process, the virus acquires its envelope, which is a modified piece of the host's plasma or other, internal membrane. The genetic material within virus particles, and the method by which

3960-517: The infected cell. Cells in which the virus is latent and inactive show few signs of infection and often function normally. This causes persistent infections and the virus is often dormant for many months or years. This is often the case with herpes viruses . Viruses are by far the most abundant biological entities on Earth and they outnumber all the others put together. They infect all types of cellular life including animals, plants, bacteria and fungi . Different types of viruses can infect only

4032-602: The insect's head into the pool of blood. Triatomine bugs are responsible for the transmission of a trypanosome , Trypanosoma cruzi , which causes Chagas disease . The Triatomine bugs defecate during feeding and the excrement contains the parasites, which are accidentally smeared into the open wound by the host responding to pain and irritation from the bite. There are several species of Thrips that act as vectors for over 20 viruses, especially Tospoviruses , and cause all sorts of plant diseases . Some plants and fungi act as vectors for various pathogens. For example,

4104-427: The insects feed on blood, the pathogen enters the blood stream of the host. This can happen in different ways. The Anopheles mosquito, a vector for malaria , filariasis , and various arthropod-borne-viruses ( arboviruses ), inserts its delicate mouthpart under the skin and feeds on its host's blood. The parasites the mosquito carries are usually located in its salivary glands (used by mosquitoes to anaesthetise

4176-416: The material is replicated, varies considerably between different types of viruses. The range of structural and biochemical effects that viruses have on the host cell is extensive. These are called ' cytopathic effects '. Most virus infections eventually result in the death of the host cell. The causes of death include cell lysis, alterations to the cell's surface membrane and apoptosis . Often cell death

4248-416: The most numerous type of biological entity. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky 's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 11,000 of the millions of virus species have been described in detail. The study of viruses is known as virology , a subspeciality of microbiology . When infected,

4320-461: The original virus. Their life cycle differs greatly between species, but there are six basic stages in their life cycle: Attachment is a specific binding between viral capsid proteins and specific receptors on the host cellular surface. This specificity determines the host range and type of host cell of a virus. For example, HIV infects a limited range of human leucocytes . This is because its surface protein, gp120 , specifically interacts with

4392-416: The polymerase during genome replication. This process appears to be an adaptation for coping with genome damage. Viral populations do not grow through cell division, because they are acellular. Instead, they use the machinery and metabolism of a host cell to produce multiple copies of themselves, and they assemble in the cell. When infected, the host cell is forced to rapidly produce thousands of copies of

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4464-965: The ranks of subrealm, subkingdom, and subclass are unused, whereas all other ranks are in use. The Nobel Prize-winning biologist David Baltimore devised the Baltimore classification system. The ICTV classification system is used in conjunction with the Baltimore classification system in modern virus classification. The Baltimore classification of viruses is based on the mechanism of mRNA production. Viruses must generate mRNAs from their genomes to produce proteins and replicate themselves, but different mechanisms are used to achieve this in each virus family. Viral genomes may be single-stranded (ss) or double-stranded (ds), RNA or DNA, and may or may not use reverse transcriptase (RT). In addition, ssRNA viruses may be either sense (+) or antisense (−). This classification places viruses into seven groups: Examples of common human diseases caused by viruses include

4536-422: The regressive hypothesis did not explain why even the smallest of cellular parasites do not resemble viruses in any way. The escape hypothesis did not explain the complex capsids and other structures on virus particles. The virus-first hypothesis contravened the definition of viruses in that they require host cells. Viruses are now recognised as ancient and as having origins that pre-date the divergence of life into

4608-484: The result of spread to an animal or human host where the virus had not been identified before. It can be an emergent virus , one that represents a new virus, but it can also be an extant virus that has not been previously identified . The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a novel virus. Classification seeks to describe the diversity of viruses by naming and grouping them on

4680-476: The saliva or brain tissue of an infected animal. Any warm-blooded animal can carry rabies, but the most common vectors are dogs , skunks , raccoons , and bats . Several articles, recent to early 2014, warn that human activities are spreading vector-borne zoonotic diseases. Several articles were published in the medical journal The Lancet , and discuss how rapid changes in land use , trade globalization , climate change and "social upheaval" are causing

4752-451: The same virion for the virus to be infectious, as demonstrated by brome mosaic virus and several other plant viruses. A viral genome, irrespective of nucleic acid type, is almost always either single-stranded (ss) or double-stranded (ds). Single-stranded genomes consist of an unpaired nucleic acid, analogous to one-half of a ladder split down the middle. Double-stranded genomes consist of two complementary paired nucleic acids, analogous to

4824-399: The structure-mediated self-assembly of the virus particles, some modification of the proteins often occurs. In viruses such as HIV, this modification (sometimes called maturation) occurs after the virus has been released from the host cell. Release – Viruses can be released from the host cell by lysis , a process that kills the cell by bursting its membrane and cell wall if present: this

4896-457: The study of the origin of life , as it lends further credence to the hypothesis that life could have started as self-assembling organic molecules . The virocell model first proposed by Patrick Forterre considers the infected cell to be the "living form" of viruses and that virus particles (virions) are analogous to spores . Although the living versus non-living debate continues, the virocell model has gained some acceptance. Viruses display

4968-446: The viral messenger RNA (mRNA). Positive-sense viral RNA is in the same sense as viral mRNA and thus at least a part of it can be immediately translated by the host cell. Negative-sense viral RNA is complementary to mRNA and thus must be converted to positive-sense RNA by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase before translation. DNA nomenclature for viruses with genomic ssDNA is similar to RNA nomenclature, in that positive-strand viral ssDNA

5040-824: The viral capsid remains outside. Uncoating is a process in which the viral capsid is removed: This may be by degradation by viral enzymes or host enzymes or by simple dissociation; the end-result is the releasing of the viral genomic nucleic acid. Replication of viruses involves primarily multiplication of the genome. Replication involves the synthesis of viral messenger RNA (mRNA) from "early" genes (with exceptions for positive-sense RNA viruses), viral protein synthesis , possible assembly of viral proteins, then viral genome replication mediated by early or regulatory protein expression. This may be followed, for complex viruses with larger genomes, by one or more further rounds of mRNA synthesis: "late" gene expression is, in general, of structural or virion proteins. Assembly – Following

5112-503: The virus to enter. Penetration or viral entry follows attachment: Virions enter the host cell through receptor-mediated endocytosis or membrane fusion . The infection of plant and fungal cells is different from that of animal cells. Plants have a rigid cell wall made of cellulose , and fungi one of chitin, so most viruses can get inside these cells only after trauma to the cell wall. Nearly all plant viruses (such as tobacco mosaic virus) can also move directly from cell to cell, in

5184-460: The virus useless or uncompetitive. To compensate, RNA viruses often have segmented genomes—the genome is split into smaller molecules—thus reducing the chance that an error in a single-component genome will incapacitate the entire genome. In contrast, DNA viruses generally have larger genomes because of the high fidelity of their replication enzymes. Single-strand DNA viruses are an exception to this rule, as mutation rates for these genomes can approach

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