The Viruses: Introduction and General Characteristics

Study Outline
 I. Early Development of Virology
A. Many epidemics of viral diseases occurred before anyone understood the
nature of the causative agents of those diseases
B. Edward Jenner (1798) published case reports of successful attempts to
prevent disease (smallpox) by vaccination; these attempts were made even
though Jenner did not know that the etiological agent of the disease was a
virus
C. The word virus, which is Latin for poison, was used to describe diseases of
unknown origin; filtering devices, which trapped bacteria but not viruses,
were used by several scientists (Ivanowski, Beijerinck, Loeffler, Frosch, and
Reed) to study a number of infectious agents; their recognition of an entity
that was filterable (i.e., passed through a filter) led to the modern use of the
term virus
D. The role of viruses in causing malignancies was established by Ellerman and
Bang (1908), who showed that leukemia in chickens was caused by a
filterable virus, and Peyton Rous (1911), who showed that muscle tumors in
chickens were caused by a filterable virus
E. The existence of bacterial viruses was established by the work of Frederick
Twort (1915), who first isolated bacterial viruses, and Felix díHerelle (1917),
who devised a method for enumerating them and demonstrated that they
could reproduce only in live bacteria
F. W.M. Stanley (1935) helped demonstrate the chemical nature of viruses
when he crystallized the tobacco mosaic virus and showed that it was mostly
composed of protein; subsequently, F. C. Bawden and N. W. Pirie (1935)
separated tobacco mosaic virus particles into protein and nucleic acid
components
II. General Properties of Viruses
A. They have a simple, acellular organization, consisting of one or more
molecules of DNA or RNA enclosed in a coat of protein, and sometimes in
more complex layers
B. With one known exception, virions contain either DNA or RNA, but not both
C. They are obligate intracellular parasites
III. The Cultivation of Viruses
A. Cultivation requires a suitable host B. Hosts for animal viruses
1. Suitable host animals
2. Embryonated eggs 3. Tissue (cell) cultures-monolayers of animal
cells
a. Cell destruction can be localized if infected cells are covered
with a layer of agar; the areas of localized cell destruction are
called plaques
b. Viral growth does not always result in cell lysis to form a
plaque; microscopic (or macroscopic) degenerative effects can
sometimes be seen; these are referred to as cytopathic effects
B. Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) are usually cultivated in broth or
agar cultures of suitable, young, actively growing host cells; broth cultures
usually clear, while plaques form in agar cultures
C. Plant viruses can be cultivated in
1. Plant tissue cultures
2. Cultures of separated plant cells
3. Whole plants-may cause localized necrotic lesions or generalized
symptoms of infection
4. Plant protoplast cultures
D. Virus Purification and Assays
E. Virus purification
1. Centrifugation of virus particles
a. Differential centrifugation separates according to size
b. Gradient centrifugation separates according to density or to