GENERAL VIROLOGY

Julius Nwobegahay, PhD

(Microbiology/molecular virology)

January 25, 2016

 Introduction to Virology

• A virus is an obligate intracellular parasite containing

genetic material surrounded by protein
• Virus particles can only be observed by an electron
microscope
 Introduction to Virology

• Recognizing the shape, size, and structure of different

viruses is critical to the study of disease
– Viruses have an inner core of nucleic acid surrounded
by protein coat known as an envelope
– Most viruses range in sizes from 20 – 250 nanometers
 Introduction to Virology

• Replication
– Viruses replicate within a host cell while utilizing the
host cell’s nucleic acids.
 Introduction to Virology

• Viral life cycle consists of the following stages within the

host cell
– Attachment
– Penetration
– Uncoating
– Transcription
– Translation
– Assembly
– Release
Virion vs virus: Structure

• Virion is the infectious

particle
– composed of nucleic
acid, protein capsid,
+/- envelope
– may be extracellular or
intracellular
• Virus is any stage of
infection
 How do we know that NA is genetic
material?

Hershey-Chase

TRANSFECTION
EXPTS
Capsid
• Functions
– Protection of NA
– Attachment for naked
viruses
– Enzyme

• Helical, Icosahedral Symmetry,

complex symmetry
helical viruses
 Icosahedral symmetry

• 20 identical equilateral
triangles
• Structural units on faces
to give morphological
capsomers
– Pentons (5 fold axis of
symmetry)
– Hexons
 Envelope
• Attachment
• Entry
• Assembly- matrix
proteins
• Release
• Proteins are viral
• Lipids are host
• Rare in plants or bacteria -
why?
• If the membrane envelope is
destroyed, the virus becomes
noninfectious. Why?
Herpesvirus complexity

• Tegument proteins - 12/84 viral

proteins in HSV
• Potential role?

• Virion mRNA
– DNAase virion nucleic
acids
– RT-PCR
– probe genome array
• Potential role?
 Genome - DNA or RNA

How do we • strandedness - (single)

experimentally show that (double)
DNA or RNA is the virus
genetic material? • linear or circular,
partial double stranded
circle
• number (single,
segmented,
multicomponent)
RNA Genomes

• sense (positive-sense,
negative-sense,
ambisense)
• presence or absence of 5'-
terminal cap or 5'-
covalently-linked protein
• presence or absence of 3'-
terminal poly (A) tract
• Retroviruses - replication
strategy
DNA Viruses may be large genomes

• PolyDNAvirus (PDV) - contain

many DNA segments

• Mimivirus - larger than small

bacteria
Viral Proteins

• structural proteins
• non-structural virion
proteins
– transcriptase,
– protease
– integrase
How to identify virion proteins

• Purify Kaposi's sarcoma-

associated herpesvirus (KSHV)
virions
• Run on SDS PAGE
• Excise bands, digest - get
sequence and compare to
database
International Congress on Taxonomy of Viruses
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTV/

• Morphology • Genome characteristics

– virion size • Replication strategy
– enveloped or naked • Antigenic Properties
nucleocapsid
– capsid symmetry and
structure
Baltimore classification