Lecture 10

Introduction to bacteria &

viruses
Biology, Campbell & Reece 7th Edn. Ch 18

By

Dr Mohamed Abumaree
Molecular Reproductive Biologist & Immunologist
College of Medicine
King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Science
2009
 Bacteria:

1. Prokaryotic cells
2. Smaller and simpler
than eukaryotic cells

 Viruses:
1. Smaller and simpler
than bacteria
2. Lack the structures &
metabolic machinery
found in cells
 Structure of Viruses
 Some viruses can crystallize

 Viruses are not cells

 Viruses are infectious particles

 Viruses consist of nucleic acid enclosed in a

protein coat (capsid) with or without an
envelope
 Viral Genomes
 Viral genomes consist of:
 Double–stranded DNA
 Single–stranded DNA
 Double–stranded RNA
 Single–stranded RNA
 DNA or RNA virus is usually organized as a
single linear or circular molecule of nucleic
acids
 Capsids and Envelopes
 Capsid is a protein
shell encloses the viral
genome
 Capsid takes rod or
polyhedral or a complex
shape (like T4)

Capsid are built from a large number of

protein subunits called capsomeres
 Tobacco mosaic virus: a rigid, rod–shaped
capsid
 Adenoviruses: infect the respiratory tracts of
animals, have a polyhedral capsid
 A membranous
envelope
surrounds the
capsids to help
viruses infecting
the hosts

 Viral envelope is derived from the host cells and the

virus its self
 Viral envelope contains phospholipids, proteins,
enzymes & glycoproteins
 Bacteriophages (phages): the most
complex capsids that are found among
viruses infecting bacteria
 Viral Reproductive Cycles
 Viruses:
1. Reproduce only within a host cell

2. Do not reproduce as an isolated virus

3. Infect a limited/broad range of host cells

4. Infect a single species (such as, measles

virus & poliovirus infect only humans)
 Viral infection of eukaryotes is usually
limited to particular tissues (such as, cold
viruses infect respiratory tract or AIDS virus
binds to white blood cells)

 DNA viruses use host DNA polymerases

to synthesize new genomes

 RNA viruses use viral polymerases, which

use RNA as a template
A viral infection begins:
1. When the viral genome enter the host cell
2. The viral genome commandeers its host to
provides the component needed for making the viral
proteins
3. The viral reproductive cycle damages the cell that
causing some of the symptoms associated with viral
infections
4. The viral progeny (children) exit the infected cell
to infect another cells (spreading the viral infection)
 Reproductive Cycles of
Phages
 Phages are the best understood & the most
complex of all viruses

 Some Double–stranded DNA viruses

reproduce by 2 alternative mechanisms:

1) The lytic cycle 2) The lysogenic cycle

 The Lytic Cycle
 A lytic cycle causes the death of the host cell
 During the last stage of infection:
1. The bacterium lyses
2. The newly produced phages are released
3. The newly produced phages infect a healthy cell

 The lytic cycles can destroy an entire bacterial

population in just a few hours
 The Lysogenic Cycle
 The lysogenic cycle does not destroy the
host
 Temperate phages can use both
reproducing cycles within a bacterium
 Lambda (λ), a temperate phage resembles
T4, but its tail has only one short tail fiber
 What triggers the
switchover from the
lysogenic to the lytic mode?

An environmental signal, such as

radiation or the presence of certain
chemicals are the triggers
Animal Viruses
 An animal virus have a viral
envelope

 Viral glycoproteins are projecting

from the envelope that bind to the
host cell

 The reproductive cycle does not kill

the host cell
Enveloped viruses enter the host cell
by:

(1) Fusion of the envelope with the cell′s

plasma membrane OR

(2) Endocytosis
 RNA viruses are found in:
 Some phages
 Most plant viruses
 Most animal viruses

 Single–stranded RNA viruses

directly serve as mRNA & thus can be
translated into viral protein immediately
after infection
 Retroviruses are RNA animal viruses
 Retroviruses have reverse transcriptase
(enzyme), which transcribes an RNA →
DNA, the opposite of the usual direction, so
called retroviruses (retro means
“backward”)
 HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a
retrovirus that causes AIDS (acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome)
HIV & other retroviruses are
enveloped viruses contain
1. 2 identical molecules of single–
stranded RNA

2. 2 molecules of reverse transcriptase

 The structure of HIV
The envelope glycoproteins enable the virus to
bind to specific receptors on certain white blood
cells