Name: Kriti Kaushal Date:

Student Exploration: Virus Lytic Cycle

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.

Vocabulary: bacteriophage, capsid, host cell, lyse, lytic cycle, virus

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. A computer virus is a program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission of the
owner. How do you think a computer virus compares to a real virus?

While computer viruses and real viruses are different because real viruses infect an actual organism,
both use a similar tactic to allow for more infections to occur; they make copies of itself.

2. Have you ever been infected with a virus, Yes, especially as a kid I’d get the flu a lot.
such as the cold virus or flu virus?

3. If so, how did the virus affect you? I would get cold-like symptoms if it was less severe. Often I
would also have things like nausea and weakness causing
me to become very tired and require rest. Overall not a
great experience.

Gizmo Warm-up
A virus is a microscopic particle that can infect a cell. Viruses are
primarily composed of a protein coat, called a capsid, and nucleic
acid. In the Virus Lytic Cycle Gizmo™, you will learn how a virus
infects a cell and uses the cell to produce more viruses.

1. Viruses are extremely small. A typical virus is about 100 times

smaller than a single cell, such as a bacterium. Label the virus
and a bacterial cell in the image at right.

2. Bacteriophages are viruses

that infect bacteria. Based on the
diagram at left, label the head, tail,
tail fibers, and the strand of nucleic
acid in the image at right.

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 Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready:
Lytic cycle ● If necessary, click Reset ( ).

Introduction: Unlike living organisms, viruses cannot reproduce on their own. Instead, viruses infect host
cells, taking over the cell’s machinery to produce more viruses. This process is called the lytic cycle.

Question: What are the steps of the lytic cycle?

1. 75.Observe: Use the navigation arrows on the DESCRIPTION tab to read about the stages of the lytic
cycle. Using your own words, summarize each step of the cycle.

Step Summary

A lytic bacteriophage virus - which is a simple structure composed of

1 protein capsid, nucleic acid, and a tail section - becomes attached to a
bacteria cell.

↓
Virus proteins break apart the cell's DNA. This occurs after the nucleic
2 acid is injected into the cell, and the acid makes use of the cell's
ribosomes to create the proteins.

↓
The capsid and tail of the virus disintegrate as they are now useless.
3 Meanwhile inside of the cell, production of new virus proteins and
nucleic acid occurs since the viral nucleic acid has taken over.

↓
4 New viruses are assembled from the virus proteins and nucleic acid.

↓
The cell is destroyed due to the proteins produced by the viral nucleic
5 acid, the bacterial cell is to lyse/burst. This allowed the new viruses to
freely infect more cells.

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2. Analyze: The yellow ring inside the bacterial cell represents the bacterial DNA. Why does this structure
disappear by step 3 of the lytic cycle?

This is because in the former step, the host cell’s DNA is destroyed due to the nucleic acid
taking control.

3. Describe: How does a virus destroy the host cell’s DNA?

The nucleic acid makes use of the cell's ribosomes to create virus proteins which break the
cell and its DNA apart.

4. Describe: How are new viruses reproduced?

The viral nucleic acid takes control of the cell and its function such as its structures to make
and copy and it uses it to make new virus parts which convene to make new viruses.

5. Think and discuss: Why can’t a virus reproduce on its own?

As explained before, viruses get the structure to make proteins and copy nucleic acid from
the cell it's infecting. They don’t have these mechanisms which is why they cannot
reproduce on their own.

6. Justify: To lyse is to burst apart or explode. Why do you think a virus’s reproduction cycle is called the “lytic
cycle”?

When a cell is used to reproduce viruses, it endures a point in the cycle where the viral
proteins cause the cell to burst or lyse. This is a repeating process which is why its given the
name lytic cycle.

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 Activity B:
Get the Gizmo ready:
Spread of
● If necessary, click Reset.
infection

Question: How does a viral infection spread?

1. Predict: Suppose that a virus infects a small population of bacteria. Predict how the numbers of viruses,
infected cells, and uninfected cells will change as the infection progresses. On the blanks below, write
increase, decrease, or stay the same.

Viruses: Increase Infected Increase Uninfected Decrease

cells: cells

2. Observe: Click Play ( ), and watch the simulation. Describe what you see.

The virus began to spread faster to uninfected cells as the infection spread/progressed.

3. Test: Click Reset, and Select the BAR CHART tab. Turn on Show numerical values. Click Play, and
watch each bar as the simulation runs. What do you notice, and how does this compare to your
predictions?

What occurred in the simulation matched what I had predicted. As the simulation ran, the
number of viruses and infected cells increased as the number of uninfected cells decreased.
However, by the end the number of infected cells and uninfected cells dropped to 0 since all
of them became viruses.

4. Record data: Select the TABLE tab, and use the data to complete the second column of the table below. To
complete each cell in the third column, subtract the previous time value from the current time value. For
example, if it took 80 minutes to reach 40 cells and 100 minutes to reach 30 cells, then the time difference
is 20 minutes.

Number of Amount of time to decrease

Time (minutes)
healthy cells population by 10
50 0 minutes --
40 61 m 61 m
30 89 m 28 m
20 107 m 18 m
10 123 m 16 m

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7. Analyze: What trend do you see in the third The amount of time needed to decrease the
column of your data table? population by 10 gradually became lower. The
number of cells would decrease as the time
needed to decrease 10 cells did.

8. Explain: How would you explain this trend?
This is because as time went on, there was a
greater number of infected cells combating the
healthy cells. Naturally, the process would
become faster as the virus was spreading faster
to other cells. To conclude, as the number of
unhealthy or infected cells increases, the rate of
infection also does.

9. Interpret: Select the GRAPH tab. Run the Gizmo again, and observe what happens in the SIMULATION
pane when the graph shows a decrease in the viruses’ population size.

A. Why does the number of viruses sometimes increase This is because the virus
and sometimes decrease? population is viewed as 0 or
close to zero when viruses
enter the host cells at some
point.

B. Sometimes when a virus enters a cell, it becomes This Is because though

dormant for a while. Why might this make it difficult for a there is an infected cell in
doctor to diagnose a viral infection? the person at this time, the
symptoms would not show
until the cell is to lyse and
infect more cells.

10. Extend your thinking: AIDS is one disease caused by a virus

infection. The virus attacks immune system cells known as T
cells.

Based on your observations from the Gizmo, how would you

explain the data shown on the graph?

The T cells are infected over a period of time by the virus

and as more time passes with this person being infected,
the viral cells are able to have a higher toll on the persons
T Cell count. This is why you see the number of T Cells
being inversely related to the time the person has aids in
months.

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