MCB 300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 37: Intracellular Parasite, Circovirus, Megavirus

• School: University of Illinois
• Department: Molecular and Cell Biology
• Course: MCB 300
• Professor: C Vanderpool

Document Summary

Lecture 37: going viral: how viruses cause disease. Reminder: a virus is a genetic element that can replicate only inside a living host cell. - rely on host cell for several critical functions: - eukaryotic viruses are important biomedically, as they are responsible for a large number of important human diseases several useful definitions: - virion (virus particle): extracellular form of a virus. - exists outside host and facilitates transmission from one host cell to another. - contains nucleic acid genome surrounded by a protein coat and, in some cases, other layers of material. Viruses are fundamentally different that eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea but have a profound influence on all three kingdoms . - viruses outnumber microbial cells 10:1 in most environments. - all of your cells are infected with viruses. - approximately 8% of the human genome is of viral origin.