Explaining why viruses are regarded as being biological important Did you realize? The 5 Kingdoms of Life do not include viruses because they exhibit both non-living and living traits.
Key Exam Terminologies for Viruses Studies you should know
- Capsid a protein coat surrounding the nucleic material of a virus
- Acellular non-cellular
- Obligate parasite obligate = forced; a parasitic organism that cannot complete its life-cycle without exploiting a suitable host (if an obligate parasite cannot obtain a host it will fail to reproduce)
- Host an organism that harbours a parasite
- Pathogenic an organism that causes disease
- Bacteriophage a type of virus that infects bacteria; the word “phage” means to eat”
- Nucleoid an irregularly shaped region within the cell of a prokaryote that contains all or most of the genetic material
4 Reasons why Viruses are considered to be biologically important
Four reasons why are viruses biologically important:
- Viruses cause diseases and are said to be pathogenic. In humans, viruses are responsible for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Covid-19, poliomyelitis, chickenpox, herpes and influenza.
- Viruses are useful in the study of genes. Viruses have either DNA or RNA which is surrounded and protected by an outer protein coat or capsid. All other living organisms have both DNA and RNA.
- Viruses affect the evolution process of the organism they use as a host.
- Viruses play an important global role in the recycling of nutrients through food webs
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