Virus

An a-cellular microorganism consist of a set of genes,

composed of either DNA or RNA package in a protein
containing coat.
Extracellular : No life activities.
Its a living materials?
Intracellular : There are some signs of life

Two classes of infectious agents that are structurally simpler than viruses:
1. Viroids : An infectious circular RNA molecules
(Small piece) that lack protein shells. They
are responsible for a variety of plant diseases.
2. Prions : A small protein, self replicating and
completely devoid nucleic acid. Activate the
latent gene in the host which codes for prion.

Viral Distinctive
Properties
Very small size : Nanometer.
Obligatory intracellular parasite.
Simple organization.
Unique of Replication Mechanism.
Nucleic acid content is only DNA or RNA

Viral host range

Viruses are divided into 3 main classes :
Animal Viruses ( Incl. Human )
Bacterial Viruses ( Bacteriophage)
Plant Viruses

Are Viruses
Alive ?

Life, is a set of complex processes resulting from

the actuation of instruction encoded in nucleic acid .
In all Living Cells; These are actuated all the time.
In a Virus ; They are actuated only when the viral
nucleic acid , upon entering a host cell, causes
the synthesis of virus specific proteins.
Virus thus alive when they replicate in cells,
Outside cells viral particles are metabolically inert.

The role of viruses as infectious agent was

recognized
long before their true nature was
understood:
1.1898 Loffler and Frosch ; Foot and Mouth Disease.
2. 1892 Ivanosky ; Plant virus in tobacco leaves.
3.1908 Ellerman and Bang, tumor producing ability
of a virus.
4. 1917, Twort ( England ), DHerelle ( France)
discover the Bacteriophage

Viral general morphology

1. Some viruses resembles crystals. Virions have a regular icosahedral protein shell ( coat ).
The coat is often called as capsid consist of
several block proteins called as capsomeres.
Inside capsid , there are Nucleic acid and Pro
tein ( Core ).
Ex. Picornavirus, Adenovirus, Papovavirus.
Some icosahedral virions have a loose phleomorphic lipid membrane called envelope.
Ex. Herpes virus and Toga virus.

2. Some virions form long rod

The nucleic acid is surrounded by a cylindrical
capsid ( Helical virions ).
Ex. Tobacco mosaic virus, Bacteriophage M13.
Some helical viruses have an additional loose
lipid membrane called Envelope.
Ex. Orthomyxovirus
3. Virions with complicated morphology.
Some showed no clearly identified capsid, but
have several coats around the nucleic acid.
Ex. Pox virus

Viral Nucleic Acid

A given virus may contain either DNA or RNA ,
may be either single or double stranded. The pro
portion of nucleic acid in the virion varies from
1 % ( ex. Influenza virus ) to about 50 % in certain Bacteriophage.
Genetic information per virion varies from about
3 to 300 kilobases (Kb) per strand. If 1 kb is the
size of average gene, small viruses contain
about 3-4 genes, and large viruses contain several hundreds genes.

Viral Multiplication
A virus multiplication cycle is typically divided
into several phases
1. Adsorption.
2. Penetration ( Entry ).
3. Uncoating to release the genome.
4. Transcription and Replication.
5. Virion components production
6. Assembly.
7. Release from the cell.

Adsorption is an important step of viral entry

into the host cell, its important to notice that
viruses do not have any capacity to move
and so the collision event is simply a random
process. Therefore, the rate of adsorption
determined by the concentration s of virions
and the host cells

Several models of Viral Adsorption

1. Adherent protein into Host cell receptor.
( Most adsorptions go to this type )
Ex. Influenza A, Reovirus, Adenovirus, Epstein
-Barr virus, Herpes Simplex, HIV, Rabies,
Poliovirus, Measles, etc.
2. Direct fusion
Ex. Paramyxovirus, Retrovirus (HIV-1).
3. Receptor mediated endocytosis / Viropexis
Ex. Poliovirus, Reovirus, Adenovirus.