Anatomy of a Virus

The tiniest viruses are

20 nm in diameter.
(smaller than a
ribosome)

They consist of
nucleic acids enclosed
in a protein coat and
sometimes a
membranous envelop.

The genomes (sets of genes) maybe
Double stranded DNA
Single stranded DNA
Double stranded RNA
Single stranded RNA
They are called either a DNA or RNA virus
depending on the type of nucleotide in the
make-up.
They may be linear or circular
The smallest have only 4 genes and largest
have several hundred.
Capsid a protein shell that covers the viral
genome. They may be
Rod-shaped
Polyhedral
More complex

Capsids are built from large numbers of protein
subunits called CAPSOMERES
The most complex capsids are found in viruses
that infect bacteria BACTERIOPHAGES
(T1-T7). They have a protein tail piece with
tail fibers that attach to the bacterium
Reproduction
Viruses are obligate
intracellular parasites
that can reproduce only
within a host cell.
They do not have
Enzymes for metabolism
Do not have ribosomes
Do not have the
equipment to make
proteins
Each type of virus can infect and parasitize
only a limited range of host cells called its
HOST RANGE.
Some are broad based while others are not.
Swine flu virus can infect swine or humans
Rabies can infect may mammals
Some can parasitize only E. coli
Eukaryote viruses are usually tissue specific
Viruses use a lock and key fit to identify
hosts.
Reproduction occurs using lytic
or lysogenic cycles
The Lytic Cycle
Culminates in the death
of the host cell
Virulent viruses
reproduce only by lytic
cyle.
Natural selection favors
bacterial mutations with
receptor sites that are
resistant to a particular
phage or that have
restriction enzymes to
destroy the phages.
The Lysogenic Cycle
Replication of the viral
genome without
destroying the host
cell.
A temperate virus may
reproduce by either
cycle.
Lambda virus:
resembles T4 but only
has a single short tail
fiber
While phages have the potential to wipe out
a bacterial colony in just hours, bacteria
have defenses against phages.
Natural selection favors bacterial mutants with
receptors sites that are no longer recognized by
a particular type of phage.
Bacteria produce restriction nucleases that
recognize and cut up foreign DNA, including
certain phage DNA.
Modifications to the bacterias own DNA prevent its
destruction by restriction nucleases.
But, natural selection favors resistant phage
mutants
In the lysogenic cycle, the phage genome
replicates without destroying the host cell.
Temperate phages, like phage lambda, use
both lytic and lysogenic cycles.
Within the host, the virus circular DNA
engages in either the lytic or lysogenic
cycle.
During a lytic cycle, the viral genes
immediately turn the host cell into a virus-
producing factory, and the cell soon lyses
and releases its viral products.
The lambda phage which infects E. coli
demonstrates the cycles of a temperate phage.

Lambda reproduction
Infects an E. coli cell by injecting its DNA
The lambda DNA molecule forms a circle.
Lytic or lysogenic cycles begin
In a lytic cycle, the cell is turned into a lambda
producing factory, the cell lyses and releases its
products.
In a lysogenic cycle, the viral genome is
incorporated into by genetic recombination into a
specific site on the host cells chromosome.
It is now known as a prophage
Every time the E. coli divides, it replicated the
phage DNA and passes it along to the daughter
cells.
This enables the phage to replicate without
destroying the host.
The phages may at some point in time become
active phages that lyse their host cell and releasing
infectious particles.
There is usually an environment trigger.
There may be other prophages released as well and
this may change the phenotype of the host. This is
of medical importance. Examples: diphtheria,
botulism and scarlet fever.
Regardless of the type of virus, the parasite
diverts the host cells resources for viral
production.
The host cell provides:
Nucleotides for nucleic acid production
Enzymes
Ribosomes
tRNA
Amino acids
ATP
Modes of infection and replication of
animal viruses
Focus on animals viruses with
a viral envelop
The envelop is outside the capsid
and helps the virus enter the host
cell.
Generally a lipid bilayer with
glycoprotein spikes
The envelop fuses with the cell
membrane
The ER of the host cell makes the
membrane proteins which are
transported to the membrane
New viruses exits the host in a
process similar to exocytosis.
This reproductive cycle
does not kill the host.
Some viruses have envelopes that are not
derived from the plasma membrane.
Herpesvirus has an envelop that is derived
from the nuclear membrane.
These become integrated into the host
genome as a provirus. Once these viruses
are acquired they tend to reoccur through
out a persons life.
RNA as Viral Genetic Material
The broadest variety of RNA genomes is
found among viruses are those that infect
animals.
There are three types of single stranded
RNA genomes
The genome of class IV can directly serve
as mRNA and can be translated into viral
protein immediately after infection
RETROVIRUSES
Most complicated
Genetic information flows
in the reverse direction
Have the enzyme reverse
transcriptase
Transcribes DNA from an
RNA template
The newly made DNA than
integrates as a provirus
into the nucleus of the
animal cell
The hosts RNA
polymerase transcribes the
virual DNA into RNA
molecules.
Viral Diseases in Animals
The damage caused by a viral disease depends on
the ability of the tissue infected to regenerate by
cell division.
Cold virus we recover from
Poliovirus - attacks
Vaccines are harmless variants of pathogenic
microbes that stimulate the immune system to
defenses against the pathogen.
The link between viral infection and the
symptoms it produces is often obscure.
Some viruses damage or kill cells by triggering the
release of hydrolytic enzymes from lysosomes.
Some viruses cause the infected cell to produce
toxins that lead to disease symptoms.
Other have molecular components, such as envelope
proteins, that are toxic.
In some cases, viral damage is easily repaired
(respiratory epithelium after a cold), but in
others, infection causes permanent damage
(nerve cells after polio).
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
The first vaccine was developed in the late 1700s
by Edward Jenner to fight smallpox.
Jenner learned from his patients that milkmaids who
had contracted cowpox, a milder disease that usually
infects cows, were resistant to smallpox.
In his famous experiment in 1796, Jenner infected a
farmboy with cowpox, acquired from the sore of a
milkmaid with the disease.
When exposed to smallpox, the boy resisted the
disease.
Because of their similarities, vaccination with the
cowpox virus sensitizes the immune system to react
vigorously if exposed to actual smallpox virus.
Effective vaccines against many other viruses
exist.
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Vaccines can help prevent viral infections, but
they can do little to cure most viral infection
once they occur.
Antibiotics which can kill bacteria by inhibiting
enzyme or processes specific to bacteria are
powerless again viruses, which have few or no
enzymes of their own.
Some recently-developed drugs do combat some
viruses, mostly by interfering with viral nucleic
acid synthesis.
AZT interferes with reverse transcriptase of HIV.
Acyclovir inhibits herpes virus DNA synthesis.
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Plant viruses can stunt plant growth and diminish
crop yields.
Most are RNA viruses with rod-shaped capsids
produced by a spiral of capsomeres.
6. Plant viruses are serious
agricultural pests
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Fig. 18.9a
In recent years, several very dangerous
emergent viruses have risen to prominence.
HIV, the AIDS virus, seemed to appear suddenly in
the early 1980s.
Each year new strains of influenza virus cause
millions to miss work or class, and deaths are not
uncommon.
The deadly Ebola
virus has caused
hemorrhagic fevers
in central Africa
periodically since
1976.
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Fig. 18.8a
Viroids, smaller and simpler than even viruses,
consist of tiny molecules of naked circular RNA
that infect plants.
Their several hundred nucleotides do not encode
for proteins but can be replicated by the hosts
cellular enzymes.
These RNA molecules can disrupt plant
metabolism and stunt plant growth, perhaps by
causing errors in the regulatory systems that
control plant growth.
7. Viroids and prions are infectious
agents even simpler than viruses
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Viruses are in the semantic fog between life and
nonlife.
An isolated virus is biologically inert and yet it
has a genetic program written in the universal
language of life.
Although viruses are obligate intracellular
parasites that cannot reproduce independently, it
is hard to deny their evolutionary connection to
the living world.
8. Viruses may have evolved from
other mobile genetic elements
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Because viruses depend on cells for their own
propagation, it is reasonable to assume that they
evolved after the first cells appeared.
Most molecular biologists favor the hypothesis
that viruses originated from fragments of cellular
nucleic acids that could move from one cell to
another.
A viral genome usually has more in common with the
genome of its host than with those of viruses
infecting other hosts.
Perhaps the earliest viruses were naked bits of nucleic
acids that passed between cells via injured cell
surfaces.
The evolution of capsid genes may have facilitated
the infection of undamaged cells.
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Candidates for the original sources of viral
genomes include plasmids and transposons.
Plasmids are small, circular DNA molecules that are
separate from chromosomes.
Plasmids, found in bacteria and in the eukaryote
yeast, can replicate independently of the rest of the
cell and are occasionally be transferred between cells.
Transposons are DNA segments that can move from
one location to another within a cells genome.
Both plasmids and transposons are mobile
genetic elements.
Copyright 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings