Can viruses replicate independently?
Viruses can replicate only inside a host cell. Outside of a host cell, viruses are simply little packages of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) wrapped in protein. What kinds of cells are hosts for viruses? Different viruses have different hosts. Host cells may be bacterial or eukaryotic cells. Each kind of virus is specific in the kind of host it infects, so bacterial viruses don’t infect mammalian cells and viruses that infect mammalian cells don’t infect bacteria. What is the viral genetic material? Viruses may have either DNA or RNA as their genetic material. A particular kind of virus has either DNA or RNA. That is to say, a DNA virus always has DNA, while an RNA virus always has RNA as its genetic material. A well known example of a DNA virus is the chickenpox virus, while the most famous RNA virus is HIV, which is a special kind of RNA virus called a retrovirus. How do viruses replicate their genetic material? Viruses enter (infect) host cells, then use the host cell’s proteins to copy t
