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Virus: Difference between revisions
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A [[Virus]] is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus Virus]</ref> | |||
Viruses can be classified according to the host cell they infect: animal viruses, plant viruses, fungal viruses, and viruses infecting bacterium. | Viruses can be classified according to the host cell they infect: animal viruses, plant viruses, fungal viruses, and viruses infecting bacterium. | ||
The classification system distinguishes viruses according to the type of nucleic acid they use as genetic material and the viral replication method they employ to coax host cells into producing more viruses: | The classification system distinguishes viruses according to the type of nucleic acid they use as genetic material and the viral replication method they employ to coax host cells into producing more viruses: | ||
DNA viruses (divided into double-stranded DNA viruses and single-stranded DNA viruses), | *DNA viruses (divided into double-stranded DNA viruses and single-stranded DNA viruses), | ||
RNA viruses (divided into positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses, negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses and the much less common double-stranded RNA viruses), | *RNA viruses (divided into positive-sense single-stranded *RNA viruses, negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses and the much less common double-stranded RNA viruses), | ||
Reverse transcribing viruses (double-stranded reverse-transcribing DNA viruses and single-stranded reverse-transcribing RNA viruses including retroviruses). | *Reverse transcribing viruses (double-stranded reverse-transcribing DNA viruses and single-stranded reverse-transcribing RNA viruses including retroviruses). | ||
There are also subviral particles, that are also infectious entities: | There are also subviral particles, that are also infectious entities: | ||
Viroids (naked circular RNA molecules infecting plants), | *Viroids (naked circular RNA molecules infecting plants), | ||
Satellites (nucleic acid molecules with or without a capsid that require a helper virus for infection and reproduction), and | *Satellites (nucleic acid molecules with or without a capsid that require a helper virus for infection and reproduction), and | ||
Prions (proteins that can exist in a pathological conformation that induces other prion molecules to assume that same conformation). | *Prions (proteins that can exist in a pathological conformation that induces other prion molecules to assume that same conformation). | ||
These viral loads can create faulty proteins as a result of scrambling amino acid sequences in our RNA-DNA communication. | These viral loads can create faulty proteins as a result of scrambling amino acid sequences in our RNA-DNA communication. | ||