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ViralGenomes

Onecleardistinctionbetweencellularorganismsandvirusesisthenatureoftheirgenomes.Cellulargenomesarealwaysdouble-stranded(ds)DNA.Viruses,ontheotherhand,employallfourpossiblenucleicacidtypes:dsDNA,singlestranded(ss)DNA,ssRNA,anddsRNA.Allfourtypesareusedbyanimalviruses.MostplantviruseshavessRNAgenomes,andmostbacterialviruseshavedsDNA.Thesizeofviralgenomesalsovariesgreatly.

Verysmallgenomesarearound4,000nucleotides-justlargeenoughtocodeforthreeorfourproteins.Somevirusessaveadditionalspacebyusingoverlappinggenes.Attheotherextremearethegenomesofmimiviruses,whichinfectprotists.Theyareabout1.2X106nucleotideslong,rivalingsomebacteriaandarchaeaincodingcapacity.

MostDNAvirusesusedsDNAastheirgeneticmaterial.However,somehavessDNAgenomes(e.g.,X174andMl3).Inbothcases,thegenomesmaybeeitherlinearorcircular.SomeDNAgenomescanswitchfromoneformtotheother.Forinstance,theE.coliphagelambdahasalineargenomeinitscapsid,butitbecomescircularonceitentersthehostcell.

RelativelyfewRNAviruseshavedsRNAgenomes.MorecommonareviruseswithssRNAgenomes.Polio,tobaccomosaic,SARS,rabies,mumps,measles,influenza,human

immunodeficiency,andbromemosaicvirusesareallssRNAviruses.

ManyRNAviruseshavesegmentedgenomes-genomesthatconsistofmorethanonepiece(segment)ofRNA.Inmanycases,eachsegmentcodesforoneproteinandtheremaybeas

manyas10to12segments(figure6.4).Usuallyallsegmentsareenclosedinthesamecapsid;however,thisisnotalwaysthecase.Forexample,thegenomeofbromemosaicvirus,avirusthat

infectscertaingrasses,iscomposedofthreesegmentsdistributedamongthreedifferentvirions.