Paper II
2017 February (2010 Scheme) · 40 marks · 120 min

Question

General characters of viruses

Q35 marksShort Essays

Answer

General characteristics of viruses — the fundamental properties that define viruses as a distinct category of infectious agent, separate from bacteria/other cellular microorganisms:

  • Obligate intracellular parasites — viruses possess no independent metabolic machinery and cannot replicate outside a living host cell; they entirely depend on the host cell’s ribosomes, enzymes, and energy sources for replication.
  • Genome — contain only one type of nucleic acid as their genome, either DNA or RNA (never both), which can be single- or double-stranded, and linear, circular, or segmented depending on the virus family.
  • Size — extremely small, generally ranging from ~20 nm to ~300 nm, mostly below the resolving power of light microscopy, requiring electron microscopy for direct visualization.
  • Structure — a viral particle (virion) consists of the nucleic acid genome enclosed within a protective protein coat called the capsid (built of repeating protein subunits, capsomeres, arranged in helical, icosahedral, or complex symmetry); some viruses additionally possess a lipid envelope (derived from host cell membrane during budding) studded with viral glycoproteins, while others are non-enveloped (“naked”).
  • Absence of cellular organelles — lack ribosomes, mitochondria, and other organelles found in true cells; lack a cell wall/membrane of their own (other than the envelope, which is host-derived).
  • Replication — replicate only by directing the synthesis of new viral components (nucleic acid and proteins) within the host cell, followed by assembly into new virions (“disjunctive” replication) — fundamentally different from binary fission used by bacteria; this replication strategy is evidenced by the “eclipse phase,” during which no infectious virus is detectable while components are being separately synthesized.
  • Filterability — pass through bacteria-retaining filters (historically how viruses were first distinguished as “filterable agents”).
  • Antibiotic resistance — inherently insensitive to antibacterial antibiotics (which target bacterial-specific structures/processes such as cell wall synthesis or bacterial ribosomes), necessitating distinct antiviral drug classes that target virus-specific replication steps.
  • Host and tissue specificity — most viruses show a defined host range and tissue tropism, determined by the presence of specific receptors on susceptible host cells that the virus’s attachment proteins can bind.
  • Genetic material carried, not “alive” in the conventional sense — viruses occupy a unique position at the boundary of what is classically defined as “living,” since they show no independent metabolism or growth outside a host cell, yet possess a genome capable of directing replication and are subject to mutation/evolution like living organisms.

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