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Virion Structure And Dependence
- Viruses are genetic instruction sets (DNA or RNA) protected by protein and sometimes a lipid envelope.
- They cannot self-reproduce and must hijack host cell machinery to make more virions.
Possible Origins Of Viruses
- Viruses may have originated as escaped pieces of cellular genetic material that evolved freelancing reproduction.
- This explains why many viruses are specialized to infect particular cell types.
How Viruses Take Over Cells
- After entering a cell, viruses hijack the cell's enzymes to transcribe and assemble viral components.
- Retroviruses integrate into host DNA and quietly produce new virions when the cell transcribes that region.