VIRUSES

PRESENTED BY GROUP 4
 Viruses are found in almost every
Virus lacks their own
ecosystem on Earth and are the
independent
metabolism and cannot
most numerous type of biological WHAT ARE
entity.
replicate outside the
host cell. So they are
VIRUSES?
also called as obligate A virus is a submicroscopic
intracellular parasites.
infectious agent that replicates
only inside the living cells of an
Virus that infects
bacteria are called organism.
bacteriophage or simply
phage. Animal virus Virus are very small infectious agents
infects animals and Viruses infect all life forms,
with size ranging from 20-300nm in
similarly plant virus diameter. from animals and plants to
infects plants. Viruses are non-cellular entities so they microorganisms, including
are also called as particles. bacteria and archaea.
STRUCTURE
OF A VIRUS
Central core of nucleic acid of
a virus is called genome and
the protein coat surrounding is
called as capsid.
A basic structure of virus is
nucleic acid core (either DNA
or RNA but not both)
surrounded by protein coat.
In some virus, an envelope
made up of glycoprotein and
phospholipid bilayer is present
outside the capsid.
 THE BASIC STRUCTURAL
COMPONENTS OF A VIRUS
 GENOME
◦ Virus contains either DNA or RNA as genetic material but not both. Viruses
which contains DNA as genetic material are called DNA virus and those
containing RNA are called RNA virus.

◦ Unlike other living cell where ds DNA is always a genetic material, a viral
genome may consists of linear or circular ds DNA, single stranded DNA, ss
linear RNA or ds linear RNA.
Each capsomere is further composed of protomere.

Capsomere are arranged precisely and tightly CAPSID

together in a repetitive pattern to form complete
capsid.
Capsid is the outer layer.
The number of capsomere in a capsid varies from Sometime it is refered as coat or
virus to virus. shell.
Capsid serves as impenetrable
shell around the nucleic acid
core.

The complete complex of nucleic acid and protein Capsid also helps to introduce
coat of a virus particle is called as virus nucleo- viral genome into host cell
capsid. during infection.
The protein coat or capsid is
Structure of capsid give the symmetry to the virus.
made up of number of
Virus particle may be either cubic or helical or binal
or complex symmetry morphological similar sub units
called capsomere.
 ENVELOPE
Some virus contains envelope
that surrounds nucleocapsid.
The virus without envelope is
In some virus the glycoprotein projects out
called naked virus.
in the form of spike called peplomere.
The envelope is a bilayer of
lipoprotein and glycoprotein.
Some of the peplomers or glycoprotein The envelope is acquired by the
spike such as Haemaglutinin and progeny virus from host cell
Neuraminidase which are involved in during virus release by budding
binding of virus to host cell. process.
 ENZYMES
Some virus contains their own nucleic acid
polymerase which transcribe the viral genome Some virus contains enzymes
into mRNA during replication process. which play central role during
infection process.

Some bacteriophage contains an

enzyme lysozyme, which makes
Retro virus are RNA virus that replicates inside small hole in bacterial cell that
host cell as DNA intermediate. allows viral nucleic acid to get
in.
These virus possess an RNA dependent DNA
polymerase called reverse transcriptase.
SYMMETRY OF VIRUS
Symmetry refers to the way in
which capsomere units are
arranged in viral capsid.
Two kinds of symmetry are
recognized in the viruses which
corresponds to two primary
shape.
Rod and spherical shape of
virus.
Rod shaped virus have helical
symmetry and spherical shaped
virus have icosahedral
symmetry.
 TWO KINDS OF SYMMETRY

ROD SHAPED VIRUS SPHERICAL SHAPED VIRUS

 Helical
(spiral) symmetry

The capsomere and nucleic acid

are wined together to form
helical or spiral tube like
The typical virus with helical structure.
symmetry is tobacco mosaic virus
(TMV), which is a RNA virus with Most of the helical viruses are
2130 identical capsomeres arranged enveloped and all are RNA
in a helix. viruses.
 Icosahedral capsid is the most stable
Icosahedral
and found in human pathogenic virus. (cubical)
Adenovirus, Picornavirus, Papovavirus,
herpes virus etc. symmetry
An icosahedral is a
polygon with 12
Icosahedral capsid are of two types;
vertices (corner), 20
facet (sides) and 30
edges.
Pentagon: Hexagon:
Pentagonal capsomere Hexagonal capsomere
at the vertices at the vertices
Each facet is an
equilateral triange.
 COMPLEX
SYMMETRY
Some virus are more complex,
being composed of several
separate capsomere with separate
shape and symmetry.

They do not have either

icosahedral or helical symmetry
due to complexity of their capsid
structure.

Ex: Pox virus, Bacteriophage.

Binal symmetry: it is a type of

complex symmerty
 COMPLEX SYMMETRY

◦ Some viruses such as T-phage (T2,T4 etc) have

complex symmetry including head and tail.

◦ The most complicated virus in terms of structure are

some bacteriophage which possess icosahedral head
and helical tail. Such structure is called binal
symmetry.
DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN VIRUS, VIROIDS AND PRIONS
HOW DO THEY DIFFER FROM EACH
OTHER?
◦ Viruses, viroids, and prions are all entities that are distinct from
typical cellular life forms like bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes.

◦ They differ in structure, composition, replication mechanisms,

and the types of organisms they can infect.
 VIROID
VIRUS PRIONS
Structure: Viruses are composed
of genetic material (either DNA
S
Structure: Viroids are much Structure: Prions are unique in
or RNA) surrounded by a protein simpler than viruses. They that they are composed solely of
coat called a capsid. Some consist of a short, circular single- misfolded proteins. Unlike
viruses also have an outer stranded RNA molecule without viruses and viroids, they do not
envelope derived from the host a protein coat. contain genetic material.
cell membrane.

Replication: Viruses cannot Replication: Viroids replicate

replicate on their own. They must inside host cells by using the Replication: Prions propagate by inducing the
infect a host cell and hijack the host's cellular machinery. They misfolding of normal cellular proteins.
host's cellular machinery to do not encode any proteins but When a prion comes into contact with a
normal protein, it causes the normal protein to
reproduce. This process often instead rely on host enzymes for adopt the misfolded conformation, leading to
damages or destroys the host replication. the formation of aggregates.
cell.