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Probably one of the most common questions from newbies to Virology. The simplest answer is no, for a few reasons. A virus can not make more of itself, or multiply, without help from the contents of living cells. Viruses are obligatory intracellular parasites. There are other agents described in these terms (eg. the Chlamydiae) however these are capable of reproducing by cell division and then continue to grow by producing their own proteins. Viruses don't do this. Viruses are assembled from a number of components that have been produced by the hijacked host cell - once assembled they don't continue to grow. A virus also relies entirely upon the host cell's ability to create the energy necessary to perform all of the manufacturing processes. Viruses do not come with batteries included! Also, a virus genome is predominantly deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) or ribodeoxy nucleic acid (RNA), but not both as is the case in the cells of an organism or other microbial agents. |
