Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: geo driver on 03/03/2010 12:57:37
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just curious, but if a virus is a bag of dna that hijacks a cell to reproduce its self, then when a virus spreads is it just the "virus" or is the infected cell that gets transmitted ?
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It is just the mature virus, wrapped up in a bit of plasma coating it stole off a cell when it budded out of it.
You have to remember a sneeze/cough etc has squillions of mature virus in it, so your body is potentially going to be infected by lots of virus at the same time.
Our resident virologist should really explain more here. [:)]
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just curious, but if a virus is a bag of dna that hijacks a cell to reproduce its self, then when a virus spreads is it just the "virus" or is the infected cell that gets transmitted ?
Hi geo driver,
You should look for figures and pics about viral replication.
Shortly, viruses bind to specific receptors present on the membrane of specific cells (e.g. HIV binds a subset of T lymphocytes), manage to enter the cytoplasma and find all the cell-machinery ready to be used to replicate their DNA-RNA and assemble all the proteins they need. Some particular enzyme-proteins are carried by the viruses themselves!
Hundreds of new viruses per second are produced this way, the 'host' cell dies or explodes, so plenty of new viruses are ready to infect other cells and replicate.
Infected cells may die or survive for a while(chronic infections), they aren't "transmitted" anyway: only viruses will travel! [:D]
Hope this is helpful.
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cheers iko, so is inly the virus that gets around wow
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Recently in a podcast it was mentioned that once a cell is infected with a virus it prevents other viruses to infect it. Not only that, it also causes the cell to produce small spring molecules of actin that flick the virus away increasing the chance to get to an uninfected cell. Smart and scary!