A long time ago, most people believed that infectious diseases were caused by either viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites. However, the mad cow's disease caused by something else proved this theory wrong.
In this case, I shall be talking about a certain infectious agent known as virusoids that infect plants. Similarly to viroids, they are infectious agents composed exclusively of a single piece of circular single stranded RNA which has some double-stranded areas. It has no capsid or envelope, making it susceptible to certain environment hazards such as heat.
The key is here. Unlike viroids, they do not require assistant virus, as viroids do, such as hepatitis with hepatitis D.
Whether this is better, or if this is not, largely depends on the purpose of the virus. This is what I believe. How about you?
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1 comment:
there seems to be some confusion in this statements.
viroid replicates autonomously and does not require helper virus. virusoid does require helper virus to replicate and is encapsidated in the coat protein of the helper virus.
mad cow disease agent might well be the first virusoid in humans and animals.
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