micro chapter 13 Flashcards
Characteristics of viruses
- minuscule, acellular, infectious
- has either DNA or RNA (not both)
- cause infections on humans, animals, plants, and bacteria
- not considered living
- can infect any type of cell or organism
Replication characteristics of viruses
- cannot reproduce independently
- neither grow nor respond to environment they just replicate quickly
- recruit host cells metabolic pathways to replicate
- DO NOT carry put their own metabolic pathways
Why is a virus not considered living?
- they do not carry out their own metabolic pathways
Virions
- complete virus particle
- a virus in its extracellular state is called a virion
What are the must have components of a virion?
- nucleic acid (DNA or RNA)
- capsid
- enzymes (maybe)
What characteristics do some virions have?
- envelope
- spike proteins
What DNA or RNA can be in viruses?
- ssDNA
- dsDNA
- dsRNA
- ssRNA
What are the two classifications of ssRNA?
- (-) sense RNA
- (+) sense RNA
What are the components of a bacteriophage?
- nucleic acid
- capsid
- hollow rod covered in sheath plates
- base plate
- tails pins
- tail fibers
Do bacteriophages have DNA or RNA?
they more commonly have DNA
How do bacteriophages infect host cells?
They constrict and inject their DNA into the host cell by acting as a hypodermic needle. The host cell is then tricked into expressing viral genome.
Hosts of viruses
- most can only infect a particular host cell
- can be cell or even strain specific
- this is due to affinity of viral surface proteins from complementary proteins on the host cell
What is a generalist virus?
A virus that can infect many kinds of cells in many different hosts
- they can bind to host cells surface proteins that are found on many different cells
How do host cells express viral genome?
The host cell is tricked into expressing viral genome. The viruses utilizes the host cells metabolic pathways and energy to synthesize its proteins.
- viral nucleic acid sequence serves as an instruction booklet for virus production
What is unique about phage synthesis?
Phages do not need additional enzymes to be put together. This is because the parts of a phage assemble due to chemical chemistry.
- hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions
- positive and negative charges
How many phages cause a cell to lyse?
about 200
Capsid morphology
- a protein coat that covers nucleic acid of a virus
- can serves as a mean of attachment to host cells
- composed of capsomers
What are capsomers?
they are proteinaceous subunits that make up the capsid of a virus
Shapes of capsids
helical, polyhedral, complex (bullet shaped of rabies virus), hourglass
Viral envelope
- acquired from host cell membrane during replication or release
- composed of phospholipid bilayer and proteins
- can have spike proteins
- proteins/glycoproteins on envelope play a role in host recognition
budding process
- enveloped virus can bind with host because it has a phospholipid bilayer
- capsid enters the host cell
- capsid is degraded quickly because it is made of proteins so nucleic acid is released
- sense DNA can be directly translated
- viral proteins are made through translation
- viral proteins self-assemble
- as virus leaves cell, it pushes on host membrane and becomes enveloped
Lytic replication
- has 5 stages
- phages are actively being produced
- host cell synthesizes viral proteins
- causes host cell to lyse when too many phages are produced
What are the two types of viral replication?
lytic and lysogenic
What are the 5 stages of lytic replication?
- attachment
- entry
- synthesis
- assembly
- release
What are the three ways viruses can enter host cells?
- direct penetration (bacteriophages use)
- membrane fusion
- endocytosis
Lytic replication in bacteriophages
- bacteriophages attach to host cell with their tail fibers
- viral genome enters host cell via direct penetration (bacteriophage acts as a hypodermic needle)
- phage DNA is translated, and viral proteins are synthesized
- proteins self-assemble into bacteriophage configuration
- newly assembled bacteriophages are release when cell lyses or through budding
What enzymes do bacteriophages code for to help release them?
- bacteriophages code for lysozyme enzymes that degrade NAG-NAM bonds to deteriorate the cell wall
- can also code for enzymes that degrade bacterial genome
Lysogenic replication
- modified replication cycle
- virus remains inactive
- host cells divide and replicate normally
- viral DNA is embedded into bacterial genome and is replicated
- viral DNA is passed on for generations
What is a virus that remains inactive called?
a prophage
What is lysogenic conversion?
Lysogenic conversion occurs when viral genome imbedded into the bacterial genome altars the phenotype of the bacteria.