Sunday, 1 February 2009

III. Virus Assembly and Release

In the 3rd stage of the virus life cycle, the new incomplete virus particles start to arrange and assemble themselves in the host cell’s site of viral synthesis – Areas of protein synthesis and processing of virus material in the host cell.


After the assembly process comes to hail when the host cell is exhausted of its nutrients and energy in making the virus proteins and envelopes, the virus particles will begin to leave the host cell via several methods, thus beginning to re-infect other cells again.



A. Virus Assembly

- Depends on the site of Synthesis

- Sites of virus protein synthesis and processing
1. Endoplasmic reticulum
2. Golgi body


- Sites of Assembly
1. Nucleus
2. Endoplasmic reticulum
3. Golgi body


- Viral Envelope sites
1. Nucleus
2. Endoplasmic reticulum
3. Golgi body
4. Plasma membrane
5. Formed via budding off from plasma membrane

image

A diagram showing a typical budding process.



B. Virus Release

1. Through cell lysis/cell burst/apoptosis.


2. Through budding at the plasma membrane.


3. Through Accumulation of particles in vesicles and release via Exocytosis.

(Exocytosis is the opposite of Endocytosis,. It is the process of purging unwanted materials from the cell. Below are 2 pictures to show what it is.)

exocytosis5

para_exo

The link to the 2 pictures: http://www.linkpublishing.com/video-transport.htm#Paramecium_-_Exocytosis_


Personal opinion and conclusion...


That would be the gist of what the stage of Virus assembly and release would be talking about.
After going through all the information, I realised that viruses are truly terrifying entities.



Viruses are classified as non-living entity by the central dogma, yet they are able to survive in extremely hard conditions with only some genetic materials, manipulate its host’s mechanism to start reproducing the virus and finally resulted in causing most of the deadly diseases known to man.


Now, is Viruses terrifying or not?

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