Invasion Strategy Of World's Largest Virus Revealed

Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 08:21 in Biology & Nature

A new study provides important new insights into the process of viral infection. The study reveals certain mechanisms by which mimivirus -- a virus so called because it was originally thought to mimic bacteria in various aspects of their behavior -- invades amoeba cells. Living cells become infected by viruses in two steps. First, the virus penetrates the cell. Next, in the second and crucial step, the cell starts producing new viruses, which spread and infect additional cells. At the beginning of this production process, the cell makes the outer wall of the virus, which is a container of sorts composed of proteins and known as the capsid. The cell then makes copies of viral DNA and inserts it into the capsid. The result is a new, functioning virus that is ready to leave the host cell and infect more cells.

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