What is a virus?

Question 1

Are viruses alive?

Answer 1

Viruses are infectious, intracellular, obligate parasites which are organisms that are ABSOLUTELY DEPENDENT on another living organism for reproduction.

So answer is it depends whether they are INSIDE the cell or ON the cell. When they are inside, they are very much ALIVE.

Question 2

How many phases do viruses exist in?

Answer 2

2 phases

Question 3

What is a virion?

Answer 3

infectious virus particle

Question 4

What is De novo self-assembly?

Answer 4

Assembly line in the cell

Question 5

What is the Global Virome?

Answer 5

Shows that viruses are everywhere!

They are 200 million light years and 10^30 bacteriophage particles in world’s oceans!.

Question 6

Do viruses infect only some living organisms?

Answer 6

FALSE, viruses infect ALL living organisms.

Question 7

What do viruses cause?

Answer 7

Viruses cause disease (such as in birth and they have a small head).

Question 8

Does the human virome have more DNA or RNA in our body?

Answer 8

We have more DNA than RNA in our body

Question 9

What percent is our human genome consists of viruses?

Answer 9

8% of our human genome consists of endogenous retroviruses

Question 10

What is zoonosis?

Answer 10

Zoonosis is the crossing over between animals to humans.

This is especially dangerous since a virus can hide in an animal host and grow to potentially infecting a new kind of virus to humans.

Question 11

Why are viruses important for the sea?

Answer 11

They are beneficial killers for seawater as the viruses will infect bacteria and kill them.

There is an abundance of viruses that outnumber bacteria.

Question 12

What is gene therapy?

Answer 12

A type of therapeutic virus where the virus is reengineered to do good.

Question 13

What is phage therapy?

Answer 13

A type of therapeutic virus where they insert phage into the body to kill the body’s bacteria.

P.S. The couple wrote a book called “Perfect Predator” to show the story of how a wife took on this experimental therapy, that was introduced a long time ago but went away due to the introduction of antibiotics, and saved the husband’s life.

Question 14

How are viruses classified?

Answer 14

Size, Shape, Envelope, and Genomes

Question 15

How do we use the SHAPE of the virus for classification?

Answer 15

ALL viruses contain a protein coat/shell called a capsid.

AKA Symmetry of protein shell (Capsid)

Question 16

How are virions formed?

Answer 16

Virions (infectious virus particles) are formed by de novo self-assembly from newly synthesized components

Question 17

What is the vehicle for transmission of the viral genome to the next host cell or organism, where it disassembly initiates the next infectious cycle?

Answer 17

A progeny (offspring) virion assembled during the infectious cycle

Question 18

How do we use the SIZE of the virus for classification?

Answer 18

Use the dimensions of the virion and capsid

Question 19

How do we use the ENVELOPE of the virus for classification?

Answer 19

A virus can LACK a lipid-bilayer causing them to be Heat-resistant (HIV, polio, etc.) making them harder to control and eliminate

A virus can be ENCLOSED within a lipid-bilayer causing them to be Heat-sensitive (Sars-CoV-2) making them easy to eliminate through the use of products such as soap and hand sanitizer (where the soap will go into lipid bilayer and tear it apart enabling the virus to mix with water)

TL:DR
Presence or absence of lipid membrane (evelope)

Question 20

How do we use the GENOME of the virus for classification?

Answer 20

The nature of nucleic acid in the virion

Through the finding of Hershey-Chase experiment, it is inferred that viral nucleic acid alone can be infectious

Question 21

What are Metagenomics?

Answer 21

Direct sequencing of genomes from environmental samples.

Question 22

What does Metagenomics detect?

Answer 22

Detects novel microbial species that are otherwise uncultivatable

Question 23

What is the host for Giant Viruses?

Answer 23

Amoeba

Question 24

What is the genome for Giant Viruses?

Answer 24

Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA virus (NCLDV)

Question 25

What technique is used to see Giant Viruses?

Answer 25

Most visible by light microscopy

Question 26

Where are the discoveries of Giant Viruses?

Answer 26

Water in cooling tower (England)

Saltwater (Coast of Chile)

Alkaline soda lake (Brazil)

30,000 year old Siberian permafrost

Question 27

What is the Medusavirus?

Answer 27

The medusavirus infects the amoebae and causes cell lysis (which is the rupturing of the membrane or cell wall). Some infected cells develop HARD SHELL; stone-like cysts.

Question 28

Where and when was the Medusavirus discovered?

Answer 28

This novel virus was isolated from a Japanese hot spring in 2019

Question 29

How many external spike proteins are there in the Medusavirus?

Answer 29

Over 2500 external spike proteins (portrayed as red protrusions in picture)

Question 30

What is the genome size of the Pandoravirus compared to SARS-CoV-2 and HIV?

Answer 30

Pandoravirus = 2541 kbp
SARS-CoV-2 = 30 kbp
HIV = 9 kbp

Question 31

What is a viroid?

Answer 31

Infectious agents of a variety of economically important plants

Question 32

What comprises a single small molecule of noncoding RNA?

Answer 32

Viroids

Question 33

What are prions?

Answer 33

Single protein molecules

Question 34

What is the simplest biologically active agent?

Answer 34

Viroids and Prions