Virus Replication: Mechanisms and Implications

This lecture explores the replication strategies of viruses, highlighting their dependence on host cells and diverse mechanisms. It delves into the structural characteristics of different viruses, their genome complexity, and the implications of viral infections on cell division and immune response control. The presentation covers the lytic and lysogenic cycles of bacteriophages, the use of bacteriophages in clinical settings, and the classification of animal viruses based on their genetic material. Additionally, it discusses the evolution of viruses, zoonotic diseases, and the impact of mutations on viral diversity and immune evasion.

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BIOENG-110: General Biology

Le but du cours est de fournir un aperçu général de la biologie des cellules et des organismes. Nous en discuterons dans le contexte de la vie des cellules et des organismes, en mettant l'accent sur l

Virus

A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 11,000 of the millions of virus species have been described in detail.

Viral quasispecies

A viral quasispecies is a population structure of viruses with a large number of variant genomes (related by mutations). Quasispecies result from high mutation rates as mutants arise continually and change in relative frequency as viral replication and selection proceeds. The theory predicts that a viral quasispecies at a low but evolutionarily neutral and highly connected (that is, flat) region in the fitness landscape will outcompete a quasispecies located at a higher but narrower fitness peak in which the surrounding mutants are unfit.

Viral evolution

Viral evolution is a subfield of evolutionary biology and virology that is specifically concerned with the evolution of viruses. Viruses have short generation times, and many—in particular RNA viruses—have relatively high mutation rates (on the order of one point mutation or more per genome per round of replication). Although most viral mutations confer no benefit and often even prove deleterious to viruses, the rapid rate of viral mutation combined with natural selection allows viruses to quickly adapt to changes in their host environment.

Cell division

Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two daughter cells. Cell division usually occurs as part of a larger cell cycle in which the cell grows and replicates its chromosome(s) before dividing. In eukaryotes, there are two distinct types of cell division: a vegetative division (mitosis), producing daughter cells genetically identical to the parent cell, and a cell division that produces haploid gametes for sexual reproduction (meiosis), reducing the number of chromosomes from two of each type in the diploid parent cell to one of each type in the daughter cells.

Zoonosis

A zoonosis (zoʊˈɒnəsɪs,_ˌzoʊəˈnoʊsɪs; plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite or prion) that can jump from a non-human (usually a vertebrate) to a human and vice versa. Major modern diseases such as Ebola virus disease and salmonellosis are zoonoses. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans in the early part of the 20th century, though it has now evolved into a separate human-only disease.

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