Viral Replication

What is viral replication?

-       Viruses do not undergo cell division.

-       They infect a host cell, and use it to replicate themselves and to produce new viral particles.

What are the 4 steps of viral replication?

1) attachment

2) penetration

3) biosynthesis

4) assembly

What is attachment?

Virus binds to host cells- Virus binds to a host cell using its attachment proteins. Viruses can have different attachment proteins, which means that different viruses infect different types of cells.

What is penetration?

Injection of nucleic acids- When viruses infects a host cell, they inject their nucleic acids into the host cell. Once the attachment proteins of a virus attach to a host cell, the virus latches on to the cell and injects the host cell with its nucleic acids

What is biosynthesis?

Injection of viral proteins- Certain viruses can also inject unique viral proteins into the host cell. These viral proteins help hijack the host cells to replicate the viral genomes and to make new viral proteins. Viruses can force the cell to give up using energy to make proteins and replicate DNA for the cell

What is assembly?

Release from host cell- Once the host cell has produced a sizeable number of viral particles, the viral particles will burst through the cell through a process called lytic release. Once they burst through the cell, the viruses will go on to infect other host cells.