Viruses, bacteriophages, retroviruses and prions

Viruses and prions

1. Viruses Dr.Nesreen Medhat [phone]

2. Viruses are acellular organisms, they don’t have organelles.. All viruses are parasites They use the host to replicate themselves and use the host cell organelles to make their proteins Viruses may have DNA or RNA as a genetic material Mutation in RNA virus is greater than that in DNA viruses. Some viruses infect bacteria are called bacteriophage

3. Life cycle of bacteriophage

4. Retroviruses They are RNA viruses that can changed into DNA using reverse transcriptase enzyme

5. Prions A prion is  a type of protein that can trigger normal proteins in the brain to fold abnormally . Prion diseases can affect both humans and animals. Cause mad cows