Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The genes of viruses are made from DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and, in many viruses, RNA (ribonucleic acid). The biological information contained in an organism is encoded in its DNA or RNA. Most organisms use DNA, but many viruses have RNA as their genetic material. The DNA or RNA of viruses consists of either a single strand or a double helix ...
A virus has either a DNA or an RNA genome and is called a DNA virus or an RNA virus, respectively. Most viruses have RNA genomes. Plant viruses tend to have single-stranded RNA genomes and bacteriophages tend to have double-stranded DNA genomes. [26]: 96–99
In addition, because viruses typically produce many copies in an infected host, mutated genes can be passed on to many offspring quickly. Although the chance of mutations and evolution can change depending on the type of virus (e.g., double stranded DNA, double stranded RNA, single strand DNA), viruses overall have high chances for mutations.
A gene is a DNA sequence that codes for a diffusible product. This product may be protein (as is the case in the majority of genes) or may be RNA (as is the case of genes that code for tRNA and rRNA). The crucial feature is that the product diffuses away from its site of synthesis to act elsewhere. [17]
Viruses may undergo two types of life cycles: the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle. In the lytic cycle, the virus introduces its genome into a host cell and initiates replication by hijacking the host's cellular machinery to make new copies of the virus. [12] In the lysogenic life cycle, the viral genome is incorporated into the host genome.
DNA replication separates the early and late phases. Once the early genes have liberated adequate virus proteins, replication machinery, and replication substrates, replication of the adenovirus genome can occur. A terminal protein that is covalently bound to the 5' end of the adenovirus genome acts as a primer for replication.
Each box is a gene. Numbers indicate genes (or rather open reading frames). The "early", "middle" (DNA replication), and "late" genes (virus structure), roughly represent the time course of gene expression. [75] Bacteriophage genomes can be highly mosaic, i.e. the genome of many phage species appear to be composed of numerous individual modules ...
Thymine occurs only in DNA and uracil only in RNA. Using amino acids and protein synthesis, [2] the specific sequence in DNA of these nucleobase-pairs helps to keep and send coded instructions as genes. In RNA, base-pair sequencing helps to make new proteins that determine most chemical processes of all life forms.