Viroid Virus

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The purpose of this experiment was to test the efficacy of condoms in preventing the transmission of viruses. Viruses are found in all types of environments and is considered a noncellular particle that needs to infect a host in order to replicate (Department of Biological Sciences, 2015). The virion, a virus particle, is composed of infective nucleic acid that is protected by a capsid and are able to infect bacteria, eukaryotes, and archaea (Slonczewski & Foster, 2015). The function of the capsid is to protect the genome from degradation and allows it to be transmitted outside the host. However, viroids are an example of an infectious agent that does not have a protective capsid and the infectious nucleic acid genome is what makes up the viroid particle (Slonczewski & Foster, 2015). Each species of viruses has a host range, which means that they can only infect a particular group of host species (Slonczewski & Foster, 2015). The infective genome of a virus takes over the host cell by reprogramming the cell to make progeny virions and depending on the size of the virus, the genome of a virus can range anywhere from 10 genes to 200 genes (Slonczewski & Foster, 2015). …show more content…
These lytic bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria by inserting their viral genome into the host cell and reproducing progeny virions, which causes the host cell to lyse. Virions are released when the host cell lyses, resulting in their disappearance, which can be observed as clear spot against a lawn of bacteria cells, known as a plaque (Slonczewski & Foster, 2015). Each plaque formation is indicative of a single virion or phage particle that lyses a host cell and spreads to infect adjacent