BIS 2C Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Prophage, Symmetry, Mimivirus
24 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Viruses are intracellular parasites with nucleic acids that are capable of directing their own replication and are not cells. They can"t replicate by division; they assemble. They are just some nucleic acids and protein. Because they are intracellular obligate parasites, the chemicals used to attempt to control viruses almost always have adverse effect on the host. Viruses are not on the tree of life. The tree of life is based on ribsomal rna and viruses don"t have that. 2 stages: virus and virion (an organism with two phases) Virus - state inside of the cell. Virion - the dormant state outside of thc cell. Consists of a nucleic acid genome, a protective protein coat (capsid), and in some (but not all) viruses, a lipid envelope. Like a combo between a rod and a helix or another two shapes. There are also some strange shaped viruses that tend to be archaea viruses. There can be separate pieces that encode different genes.
