Most of us have ingrained ideas about certain people , certain things , events or things. They are also called stereotypes. For example, just saying " politician " today , most of us have a stereotyped idea based on pre-defined qualities that are generally attributed to them . The same is true of viruses. Just by saying virus, many people have an idea of something scary that brings disease dangers to us . But , if we look at the facts scientifically with evidence , we can recognize for ourselves the irrelevance of our rooted ideas (not only about the virus but also about other issues).
The nature of viruses
Viruses are parasites
They differ from viruses and cells by the way they multiply. A new cell always arises directly from a pre-existing cell. But a virion never arises directly from a preexisting virion. New virions are produced by a replication process. This process takes place inside a charge cell. The synthesis of components that occurs after assembly into virions is involved in this process.
Thus viruses are parasites of cells. And they depend on their hosts for most of the needs. These requirements may include building blocks such as amino acids and nucleosides, protein synthesis machinery (ribosomes), and energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate. A virus modifies the intracellular environment of its host. This is done to increase the efficiency of the replication process. These modifications may include the production of new membranous structures, reduced cellular gene expression, or enhanced cellular processes. Some phages encode proteins that increase photosynthesis in the cells of their photosynthetic bacterial hosts, sometimes increasing the virus yield of the cells.
According to the details made so far in this article, we can now give a brief definition about the nature of the virus.
“A virus is a very small non-cellular parasite of cells. Its genome, consisting of DNA or RNA, is encased in a protein coat”.
Is the virus alive ? Inanimate ?
There is an ongoing debate about whether a virus is a living thing (living) or a non-living thing (inanimate). One's view on this depends on one's definition of life. Viruses have genes that replicate when they infect cells. In that sense, the virus is alive.
However, they are very different from cellular life forms. Therefore, with the discovery of the new life form in the galaxy , as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek movie, McCoy said, 'They are creatures, Jim , but not the kind we know ' , we can also apply to viruses. Viruses exist as viral particles (virions) when outside their host cells. Virions are inactive and can be described as abiotic or non-living. Even though viable bacterial spores are inactive, they are not considered non-living. Before you come to your own conclusions about whether viruses are alive or not (as with any other task) it's well worth doing some further research.
In finding a name (for viruses), Beijerinck chose (see last week's Friday the 13th fact sheet) the Latin word for 'poison' (virus). The word virus has been in use for over a century now, and virology has grown into a powerful discipline.
More recently, virus is also used in other senses. Viruses are a threat to computers that can run wild and infect computers after being released. These viruses are specific to certain file types. Virus epidemics are caused by the worldwide spread of infected Internet(). The book 'Lost For Words' by John Humphrys is about a virus that infects a language that can be deadly in the language of management.
However, established virology as a new discipline focuses on the aforementioned living or non-living viruses. Among the unique uses considered in virology are viral vaccines as well as drugs. Virology focuses mostly on the protein and nucleic acid properties of viruses, as well as the interaction between proteins and nucleic acids in these molecules and cells. Many of these interactions depend on specific bonds between molecules. Therefore, having a good background in molecular biology and cell biology is useful for studying virology.