Viruses have DNA or RNA and replicate via host machinery
Question asked:
“Viruses consist of either DNA or RNA and replicate by using the host cell's machinery to produce new virus particles.”
Summary
Viruses are composed of a single type of nucleic acid—either DNA or RNA, but never both. They lack the cellular machinery needed for protein synthesis and genome replication, so they must hijack the host cell’s molecular systems to produce new virus particles. This description reflects the established scientific understanding of viral structure and replication.
Sources 58 searched
- Origin of Viruses | Learn Science at Scitable
Viruses also do not possess the necessary machinery for translation, as mentioned above. They do not possess ribosomes and cannot independently form proteins from molecules of messenger RNA. Because of these limitations, viruses can replicate only within a living host cell.
- Replication and Expression Strategies of Viruses - PMC - NIH
Straightforward exploitation of the cellular capping machinery is typical of DNA viruses that replicate in the nucleus. Other strategies used by viruses include internal initiation of translation of uncapped RNAs in picornaviruses and their relatives, snatching of capped oligonucleotides from ...
- Virus DNA Replication and the Host DNA Damage Response
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- Viral Polymerases - PMC - NIH
Viruses that spend their entire ... contrast, some small DNA viruses that spend their entire life cycle in the nucleus do not need to encode their own polymerase, instead relying entirely on host cell machinery for genome replication and mRNA synthesis....
- Virus
A virus is an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat. A virus cannot replicate alone; instead, it must infect cells and use components of the host cell to make copies of itself.
- Viral Replication Mechanism - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
The viruses that replicate DNA→DNA use the host machinery for this process; however, this machinery is usually only active during cell division. As described in detail in Section VIII, D, geminiviruses and nanoviruses have mechanisms that “switch on” the host DNA replication enzymes, ...
- RNA Virus - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses classifies RNA viruses as those that belong to group III, group IV, or group V of the Baltimore classification system for viruses and does not consider viruses with DNA intermediates as RNA viruses. These viruses are included in group VI and ...
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