VIROLOGY (Text Chapt 6):
Viruses of Eukaryotes

    Eukaryotic virology is perhaps two decades behind our knowledge of bacterial viruses because the complexities of the host cells are so much greater than that for the simple bacteria.

    For one thing, infected eukaryotic do not usually burst to release the viral progeny, but rather slowly bud them off into their surroundings. For another thing, many times the infection doesn't kill the cell at all - the cells seem to be able to cure themselves - sometimes. This does not happen in the prokaryotic world.

    Perhaps the biggest hurdle facing eukaryotic virologists is that few of the viruses for humans are dsDNA. Most are RNA viruses, and some like the HIV is a partially dsRNA virus. As one of Dr. V's mentors wrote it out for his lab group's goals - "How does an RNA virus operate in a DNA-dominated universe?" Afterall, as soon as an RNA genome enters the cell it finds itself in an extremely alien environment that has no idea of how to cope with a dsRNA molecule! That is both a problem and a benefit - a benefit because the cell has no "idea" about how to defeat it; the problem is there are no enzymes that can read or replicate it. So how does it work?

But before we jump in that deep, let's start out with dsDNA viruses.

1. The classic dsDNA human virus called Adenovirus-5 (AV5).
   It gives a very bad sore throat (adenoids, remember!).
   1. The normal infection cycle
      1. The anatomy and physiology of AV5

      2. The infection cycle

   2. Tissue culture infections using AV5
      1. What are tissue cultures?

      2. The infection cycle - normal versus abnormal

      3. AAV (even viruses have viruses that attack them!)

2. The RNA viruses
   1. TMV is our prototype RNA virus
      1. Anatomy
      2. Is it living?
      3. How it replicates in a tobacco or tomato leaf
   2. HIV
      1. Anatomy
      2. How it replicates (look back at phage lysogeny, induction, and so on and on!)

3. Prions - are they "almost-viruses"?