Viruses

The deadliest puzzle , still unresolved!!!!!!!!

What if somebody don’t exactly know the cure to what one suffers from? And what makes it difficult to find the cure too!!!!

The answers resides: all in the structure!

To the most threatening microorganism , which never gives a proper clue as it is neither living nor non living.

The discovery of viruses in the final years of the nineteenth century represented the culmination of two decades of work on tobacco mosaic disease(TMV).

The name virus was coined from the Latin word meaning “Slimy liquid” or “poison”.

 About half of all human DNA originally came from viruses, which infected and embedded themselves in our ancestors’ egg and sperm cells.

• A virus is made up of a DNA or RNA genome inside a protein shell called acapsid. Some viruses have an external membrane envelope.

All Viruses do, however, have a few key features in common. These include:

• A protective protein shell, orcapsid
• A nucleic acid genome made of DNA or RNA, tucked inside of the capsid
• A layer of membrane called theenvelope (some but not all viruses)

And  as we say; its all in the genes!!!

 Most viruses have either RNA or DNA as their genetic material. The nucleic acid may be single- or double-stranded. The entire infectious virus particle, called a virion, consists of the nucleic acid and an outer shell of protein. The simplest viruses contain only enough RNA or DNA to encode four proteins. The most complex can encode 100 – 200 proteins!!!!!!

HOW DO THEY MULTIPLY?

For a typical virus, the lifecycle can be divided into five broad steps (though the details of these steps will be different for each virus):

1. Attachment
2. Entry
3. Genome replication/gene expression
4. Assembly
5. Release

       It is due to antigenic drift and antigenic shift of the viruses characteristics. The    viruses  undergoes continuously changes. These are the main reason why it is difficult to control.

Virology is an enormous branch of research area, and will be always because , deep down the surface it is well known if there is no proper cure, means of prevention , holds the paramount place!!!!!

By,

Ms. Priyanka Shukla

PGT Biology