微生物学微生物学 (36).docVIP

6.1Virology

Afterlearningthissection,youshouldbeableto:

?Definethetermsvirology,bacteriophages,andphages

?Listorganismsthatarehostsofviruses

Thedisciplineofvirologystudiesviruses,auniquegroupofinfectiousagentswhosedistinctivenessresidesintheirsimple,acellularorganizationandpatternofmultiplication.

Despitethissimplicity,virusesaremajorcausesofdisease.Forinstance,manyhumandiseasesarecausedbyviruses,andmorearediscoveredeveryyear,asdemonstratedbytheappearanceofSARSin2003,newavianinfluenzavirusesoverthepast5to6years,andtheHINl(swine)influenzavirusin2009.However,theirsimplicityalsohasmadethemattractivemodelorganisms.TheyservedasmodelsforunderstandingDNAreplication,RNAsynthesis,andproteinsynthesis.Thereforethestudyofviruseshascontributedsignificantlytothedisciplineofmolecularbiology.Infact,thefieldofgeneticengineeringisbasedinlargepartontheuseofvirusesandviralenzymessuchastheretroviralenzymereversetranscriptase.

Virusescanexisteitherextracellularlyorintracellularly.Whenextracellular,theyareinactivebecausetheypossessfew,ifany,enzymesandcannotreproduceoutsideoflivingcells.

Whenintracellular,virusesexistprimarilyasreplicatingnucleicacidsthatinducethehosttosynthesizeviralcomponentsfromwhichprogenyvirionsareassembledandeventuallyreleased.

Virusescaninfectallcelltypes.Numerousvirusesinfectbacteria.Theyarecalledbacteriophages,orphagesforshort.Fewerarchaealviruseshavebeenidentified.Mostknownvirusesinfect

eukaryoticorganisms,includingplants,animals,protists,andfungi.Viruseshavebeenclassifiedintonumerousfamiliesbasedprimarilyongenomestructure,lifecycle,morphology,andgenetic

relatedness.ThesefamilieshavebeendesignatedbytheInternationalCommitteefortheTaxonomyofViruses(ICTV),theagencyresponsibleforsta