Viruses Flashcards
What are the diameters of viruses?
20-300nm
How do we visualise viruses?
Most viruses cannot be seen with an optical microscope, so scanning and transmission electron microscopes are used to visualise them.
What genome do most viruses have?
RNA
What does positive sense mean?
Positive-sense viral RNA is in the same sense as viral mRNA and thus at least a part of it can be immediately translated by the host cell.
What does negative sense mean?
Negative-sense viral RNA is complementary to mRNA and thus must be converted to positive-sense RNA by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase before translation.
What does each Baltimore group define?
Group I: double-stranded DNA viruses
Group II: single-stranded DNA viruses
Group III: double-stranded RNA viruses
Group IV: positive sense single-stranded RNA viruses
Group V: negative sense single-stranded RNA viruses
Group VI: single-stranded RNA viruses with a DNA intermediate in their life cycle (retro)
Group VII: double-stranded DNA viruses with an RNA intermediate in their life cycle
Give an example of a virus in each Baltimore group
Group I: Herpes, smallpox, adenovirus
Group II: B19 parvovirus (slapped cheek rash)
Group III: Rotavirus
Group IV: Polio, norovirus, dengue
Group V: influenza, measles, mumps, rabies
Group VI: HIV-1
Group VII: hepatitis B
What is the protective coat of the nucleic acid?
Capsid
What is the virion lipid envelope derived from?
Host cell membrane
What are proteins associated with nucleic acid known as?
Nucleoproteins
Roughly how do DNA viruses replicate?
The genome replication of most DNA viruses takes place in the cell’s nucleus. Most DNA viruses are entirely dependent on the host cell’s DNA and RNA synthesising machinery, and RNA processing machinery.
Roughly how to RNA viruses replicate - what is it dependent on?
Replication of RNA viruses usually takes place in the cytoplasm. The method depends on several further factors.
The polarity (whether or not it can be used directly by ribosomes to make proteins)
Single-stranded or double-stranded genetic material.
Roughly how do reverse transcribing viruses replicate?
Reverse transcribing viruses have ssRNA or dsDNA in their particles.
Reverse transcribing viruses with RNA genomes (retroviruses) use a DNA intermediate to replicate, whereas those with DNA genomes (pararetroviruses) use an RNA intermediate during genome replication.
Both types use a reverse transcriptase, or RNA-dependent DNA polymerase enzyme, to carry out the nucleic acid conversion.
Retroviruses integrate the DNA produced by reverse transcription into the host genome
What is a plaque assay?
Virus stock is incubated, the spread of the new viruses is restricted to neighbouring cells by the gel.
Consequently, each infectious particle produces a circular zone of infected cells called a plaque.
Eventually the plaque becomes large enough to be visible to the naked eye.
What is Haemagglutination?
Many viruses attach to molecules present on the surface of RBCs.
A consequence of this is that at certain concentrations, a viral suspension may bind together (agglutinate) the RBCs, thus preventing them from settling out of suspension.
What is a plaque assay useful for calculating?
Comparing these plates at different viral concentration helps us to calculate the viral load
Haemagglutination requires samples containing whole (live or inactivated) virus
True
What does convalescent mean?
Non-infectious/ recovering phase
Nose and throat swabs from convalescent phase patients are a good source of samples for qRT-PCR.
False, once the patient has recovered the immune system has cleared the virus and therefore there are no virions to detect by qRT-PCR at any sampling site.
Serum samples from acute phase patients are usually positive for influenza by qRT-PCR.
False, during the course of a normal influenza infection only cells of the upper respiratory tract are infected and these shed viruses from their apical surface, releasing virus back into the respiratory mucus. This means that virions are not generally found within the blood, except (in rare and mostly fatal cases (e.g. a fatal H5N1 avian influenza case).
Serum samples from convalescent patients are a good source of samples for qRT-PCR.
False
Haemagglutinin adopts a fusion-promoting conformation at pH values above 8.2
False - Once a pH of about 5 is reached (actual pH varies by strain from 4.6 to 6) the HA protein alters its conformation to insert a fusion peptide into the endosomal membrane.
Haemagglutinin binds to sialic acid residues
True
Haemagglutinin changes conformation at low pH
True