VIRUS

JEREMIA J.PYUZA
 IMPORTANT TERMS AND DEFINITION
• Viruses: Are smallest infectious agents (ranging from about
20 nm to about 300 nm in diameter) and contain only one
kind of nucleic acid (RNA or DNA) as their genome
• Virology: Is study of viruses
• Capsid: The protein shell, or coat that encloses the nucleic
acid genome
• Nucleocapsid: The protein-nucleic acid complex plus a
capsid. Sometimes it is a complete virion
• Virion: The complete virus particle. In some instances the
virion is identical with the
• Nucleocapsid. In more complex virion, it includes the
nucleocapsid plus a surrounding envelope
• Envelope: A lipid-containing membrane that
surrounds some virus particles
• Structural units: The basic protein building
blocks of the coat. They are usually a collection
of more than one identical protein subunit. The
structural unit is often referred to as a protomer
• Subunit: A single folded viral polypeptide chain
• Defective virus: A virus particle that is
functionally deficient in some aspect of
replication
 Characteristics of Viruses

• They are small in size ranging from about 20 nm

to about 300 nm in diameter.
• They are akaryotic particles (neither eukaryotes
nor prokaryotes)
• They contain either DNA or RNA and not both as
their genome
• They exhibit living properties when inside the
living cells (i.e. they are incapable of independent
reproduction unless they are in the living cell)
 Characteristics of Viruses
• Viruses are known to infect unicellular
organisms such as mycoplasmas, bacteria, and
algae and all higher plants and animals
• They are non motile
• They can be grown in cell cultures
 Structure of Viruses
• Generally the virus structure is made of three
basic units
• • Envelop made of glycoprotein and lipids
• • Capsid
• • Viral core (RNA or DNA)
 Parts of the Viral Structure and its
Function
• Envelop is the outermost coat of the virus made of
lipid and proteins
o Its function is to support glycoproteins or spikes used
for attachment to the host cell
o Gives stability to the virus
o Protects the inner parts of the virus
o It is usually derived from the host cell during release
(budding)
o Virus with an envelop are less stable than non
enveloped virus (they can be destroyed by disinfectants
or adverse condition of the environment
 Structures functions
• Capsid is a protein coat which covers the viral genome,
it is made up of repeating subunits called capsomers
• o The repeating subunits of the capsid give the virus a
symmetric appearance that is useful for classification
purposes
• o Some viral nucleocapsids have spherical (icosahedral)
symmetry where as others have helical symmetry
• o All human viruses that have a helical nucleocapsid
are enveloped (there are not naked helical viruses that
infect humans)
• o Viruses that have an icosahedral nucleocapsid can be
either enveloped or naked
 Structures functions
• Viral Core contains genetic materials necessary
for replication. They include either DNA or RNA,
never both
o Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) containing viruses
are double stranded except parvoviruses which
have single strand DNA
o Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) containing viruses are
single stranded. Example human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
o Nucleic acid can either be linear or circular,
continuous or segmented
STRUCTURE OF VIRUS