Introduction to
Virology
Masheal Aljumaah OCT 2018
Learning objectives:
▷ What Is a Virus?
▷ Viral Structure.
▷ Classification of Virus.
▷ Why do we Study Viruses?
▷ How do we Detect and Measure
Viruses?
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1.
What Is a Virus?
(The concept of virus, Historical background, Host Range, General
characteristics of viruses)
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“
Viruses are very different from the other microbial groups. They are so
small (filterable) that most can be seen only with an electron
microscope, and they are acellular (not cellular). Viruses can
reproduce only by using the cellular machinery of other organisms
(obligatory intracellular parasites) (1).
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(1).
1.
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Historical background
One hundred years ago, researchers
couldn’t imagine sub microscopic particles,
so they described the infectious agent as
contagium vivum fluidum—a contagious fluid
(1798) Edward Jenner, introduced the term virus in
microbiology. noticed that milk maids who infected
with cowpox develop immunity against smallpox.
He inoculated a boy with the vesicle fluid taken from
the hand of infected maid. The boy developed
sustained immunity against smallpox.
(1935) Wendell Stanley, isolated tobacco mosaic virus
TMV, making it possible for the first time to carry out
chemical and structural studies on a purified virus. At
about the same time, the invention of the electron
microscope made it possible to see viruses.
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Figure 1. Edward Jenner inoculating a boy with the vesicle fluid
taken from the hand of infected maid with cowpox. The boy
developed sustained immunity against smallpox.
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Figure 2. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)
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Virus Host Range
The host range of a virus is the spectrum of host
cells the virus can infect.
Viruses are able to infect specific types of cells of only one
host species. (host-specific)
In rare cases, viruses cross the host-species barrier, thus
expanding their host range.
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Virus Host Range
Viruses can infect:
▷ Invertebrates ▷ Protists
▷ Vertebrates Human ▷ fungi
Other vertebrates
▷ Plants ▷ bacteria
(bacteriophages)
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(Virology Principles & Applications Book, p1)
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Viral Size
Viral sizes are determined with the aid of electron
microscopy. Different viruses vary considerably in size.
Although most are quite a bit smaller than bacteria,
some of the larger viruses (such as the vaccinia virus) are
about the same size as some very small bacteria (such as
the mycoplasmas, rickettsias, and chlamydias). Viruses
range from 20 to 1000 nm in length.
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2.
Viral Structure
(General Structure Of Virus, Virus Genomes, General Morphology)
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Structure of Virus
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Bacteriophage Structure
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Virus Genomes
In contrast to prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells,
in which DNA is always the primary genetic
material (and RNA plays an auxiliary role), a
virus can have either DNA or RNA but never
both.
single-stranded
The nucleic acid of a virus can be
double-stranded.
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Virus Nucleic acid
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General Morphology
(basis of their capsid architecture.)
▷ Helical Viruses:
▷ Polyhedral Viruses: ▷ Complex Viruses:
Helical viruses resemble
Or many-sided, viruses. The One example of a complex
long rods that may be
capsid of most polyhedral virus is a bacteriophage.
rigid or flexible. The viral
viruses is in the shape of an
nucleic acid is found
icosahedron
within a hollow,
cylindrical capsid that has ▷ Example: poliovirus.
a helical structure
▷ Example: Rabies and
Ebola viruses
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3.
Classification of Virus
(Naming of viruses, Classification of virus: ICTV, Baltimore Classification)
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Nomenclature of Viruses
▷ Various approaches, (do not obey the binomial nomenclature)
derived from:
How they
Name after were
the places Host and Latin originally
where the signs of
Named disease first and thought to
after the reported disease Greek Virus be
diseases e.g. Tobacco discovers contracted
eg. Measles
eg. Newcastle
disease virus,
mosaic virus, words e.g. Epstein- e.g. dengue virus
(“evil spirit”),
cauliflower e.g.
virus, smallpox Ebola virus,
Coronaviridae –
Barr virus influenza virus
virus mosaic
Norwalk virus, “crown” (the “influence”
Bunyaviridae virus brome Parvoviridae – of bad air)
mosaic virus “small
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Classification of Virus
Using International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses
(ICTV) to classify the viruses
Classification of Virus
- eg. animal, plant, bacterial
1- Classical system virus
- eg. naked or enveloped virus
2- Based on Genomics Baltimore classification
Classification based on
3- Based on Serology Diagnostic virology
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Baltimore classification
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4.
Why do we Study Viruses?
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Reasons for studying viruses
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1- Viruses are capable of infecting all forms of life
Vertebrates, prokaryotes, fungi, algae
2- Most abundant form of life
Bacteriophages are extremely abundant
Estimated 1031 tailed bacteriophages
3- Gene vectors for protein production.
Viruses such as certain baculoviruses and adenoviruses are used as vectors to
take genes into animal cells growing in culture
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Reasons for studying viruses
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4- Gene vectors for treatment of genetic diseases.
Children with severe combined immunodeficiency have been successfully treated using
retroviruses as vectors to introduce into their stem cells a non-mutated copy of the mutated
gene responsible for the disease
5- Excellent molecular biology tools -Sources of enzymes:
A number of enzymes used in molecular biology are virus enzymes (eg. reverse
transcriptases from retroviruses and RNA polymerases from phages)
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Reasons for studying viruses
6- Anti-cancer agents:
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Genetically modified strains of viruses, such as herpes simplex virus and vaccinia virus,
are being investigated for treatment of cancers
7- Pesticides.
Some insect pests are controlled with baculoviruses and myxoma virus.
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4.
How do we Detect and
Measure Viruses?
(Isolation, Cultivation, and Identification of Viruses)
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They can not be cultivated on artificial culture media.
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“
The fact that viruses can’t multiply
outside a living host cell complicates
their detection, enumeration, and
identification.
✓ Viruses must be provided with living
cells instead of a fairly simple
chemical medium (1).
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“
▷ However, viruses that use bacterial
cells as a host (bacteriophages) are
rather easily grown on bacterial
cultures.
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Methods (1) Growing solid media plaque method
for Bacteriophages (detect and count viruses)
growing
viruses in
liquid media
the
laboratory
(2) Growing Animal Living Animals
Viruses
Embryonated
Eggs
Cell Cultures
(3) Growing plant
Viruses
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(1) Growing Bacteriophages in
the Laboratory
The Number of
Plaques
=
Plaque-
forming Units
(PFU).
Figure 4. plaque method.
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(2)Growing Animal Viruses
A- In Living Animals :
▷ Some animal viruses can be
cultured only in living animals, such
as mice, rabbits, and guinea pigs.
▷ Most experiments to study the
immune system’s response to viral
infections .
▷ Animal inoculation may be used as
a diagnostic procedure for
identifying and isolating a virus
from a clinical specimen.
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(2)Growing Animal Viruses
B- In Embryonated Eggs:
Viral growth is signalled by:
1. the death of the embryo.
2. embryo cell damage.
3. by the formation of typical pocks or
lesions on the egg membranes.
5.
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(2)Growing Animal Viruses
B- In Embryonated Eggs:
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(2)Growing Animal Viruses
C - In Cell Cultures:
Cell cultures have replaced embryonated eggs as the preferred type of growth medium
for many viruses. Cell cultures consist of cells grown in culture media in the laboratory.
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(2)Growing Animal Viruses
C - In Cell Cultures:
Cell culture lines are started by treating a slice of animal tissue with enzymes that
separate the individual cells (Figure5). These cells are suspended in a solution that
provides the osmotic pressure, nutrients, and growth factors needed for the cells to
grow.
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(1) Growing plant Viruses
in the Laboratory
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(1) Growing plant Viruses
in the Laboratory
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“
References:
▪ Tortora, G.J., Funke, B.R., Case, C.L. and Johnson, T.R.,
2004. Microbiology: an introduction (Vol. 9). San Francisco,
CA: Benjamin Cummings.
▪ Madigan, M.T., Martinko, J.M. and Parker, J., 1997. Brock
biology of microorganisms (Vol. 11). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice hall.
▪ https://www.abmgood.com/marketing/knowledge_base/cell
_culture_introduction.php#categories
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Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at: 87 third floor
maljumaah1@ksu.edu.sa
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