Microbiology Review Sheet
Unit 4 Viruses
Please use the following list as a guideline. It is recommended that you review your notes, lecture slides, labs, the readings from your textbook, as well as any supplemental readings listed in the syllabus.
Students should be able to:
Classification of Viruses
●Identify how to distinguish a virus from other microorganisms and understand the classification of viruses by shape, nucleic acid and/or host species.
●Compare and contrast the replicative cycle of bacterial, eukaryotic cells and viruses
●Name, describe, and classify by composition the major structural features of different viral particles including capsid, capsomere, nucleic acid, sheath, tail fiber, base plate and pin
●Understand and identify the different shapes of viruses and the structural and functional differences between naked and enveloped viral particles.
●Describe the variety and types of nucleic acid structures housed within the viral capsids.
Bacteriophages and their Life Cycles
●Describe and know the names of the major bacteriophage lytic life cycle phases (attachment, penetration, biosynthesis, maturation and release).
●Explain a transduction event that can result during the lytic life cycle and explain how the bacteriophage then becomes a recombinant DNA vector that can genetically alter additional bacterial cells as a result
●Understand and explain the fundamental differences between and the interconnectedness of the bacteriophage lytic and lysogenic life cycle phases.
●Understand the concept of viral latency as it relates to the lysogenic life cycle and how the lysogenic life cycle is terminated when the latency period no longer persists
●Compare and contrast transduction mechanisms resulting from the lytic and lysogenic life cycles.
Animal Viruses
●Familiarize yourself with the major classifications and families of animal cell viruses and their nuclear acid based classification and differentiation
●Be able to explain the various different animal virus life cycles according to the core nucleic acids (i.e. DNA, ssRNA, dsRNA, retroviruses)
●Explain how uncoating and viral particle release or budding take place and differ between uncoated and enveloped viruses
●Influenza and Viruses relationship to cancer
●Understand how genetic alterations in viruses (particularly influenza) might translate to differential infectivity and virility effects
●Define and relate antigenic shift and antigenic drift to alterations in viruses that can change host infectivity and viral spread
●Understand the role of HA and NA spikes on Influenza viruses
●Describe what type of genes must be mutated to result in cancer, how can a virus play a role in this process?