What do viruses do that make their replication completely different from that of bacteria?
What do viruses do that make their replication completely different from that of bacteria?
Answered
Viruses replicate in a fundamentally different way from bacteria. Unlike bacteria, viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, meaning they cannot replicate on their own. They must infect a host cell to hijack the cell’s machinery for their replication. A virus injects its genetic material (either DNA or RNA) into a host cell, which then uses the host’s ribosomes, enzymes, and energy to produce viral components. These components are assembled into new viral particles, which are released from the host cell, often destroying it in the process. In contrast, bacteria replicate through binary fission, an entirely self-sufficient process that does not require a host.
BNO Team