Viruses : Introduction

Viruses occypy twilight zone that separates living from nonliving Viruses are living chemicals: they could be crystallized like chemicals and host cells could be infected with its nucleic acid to yield its progeny

Viruses : Characteristics
1. No cellular organization. 2. Contain only one type of nucleic acid : DNA or RNA , never both 3. Extracellular infectious virus particle is called Virion 4. Obligate intracellular parasites : They lack ribosomes & enzymes for protein & nucleic acid synthesis , so they are dependent of host cell 5. Do not grow on inanimate culture media (= Chlamydiae) 6. Complex multiplication process (its not binary fission) 7. No effect of antibiotics 8. Sensitive to Interferon (= Chlamydiae)

Viruses : Medical

They cause large number of human diseases ranging from common cold to AIDS. Viruses are carcinogenic in humans and animals significance Control of bacterial infection with antibiotics has enhanced role of viral infections in humans