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virus

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virus

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Also known as infectious agent

A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 16,000 of the millions of virus species have been described in detail. The study of viruses is

OverviewAI-generated

A virus is a taxon within the parent taxon Biota, classified at the domain rank. It is a subclass of microorganism and pathogen, possessing a viral capsid as a part. The organism is studied by virology and exhibits characteristics such as a viral life cycle, scientific name, strain, and genetic variant. It has uses including virovory and causes effects like viral infectious disease and viral pneumonia.

The subject is distinct from computer viruses. It is the focus of the Commons category "Viruses" and the topic category Category:Viruses. In the World Register of Marine Species, the status is accepted at the Kingdom rank, with habitats including marine, brackish, and freshwater environments. The iNaturalist database lists the rank as species, with the common name Rose rosette disease, and records 3,876 observations.

PubMed contains 1,612,665 records for the query "virus." The Vinony graph indicates the topic is referenced by 4,653 other encyclopedia articles. iDigBio records show 56 media items from institutions CDA and CUP in the United States. The NCI Thesaurus ID is C14283.

Synthesized by Vinony from 35 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, iNaturalist, WoRMS, iDigBio, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Species

Rose rosette disease

Kingdom

Habitatmarine, brackish, freshwater
Observations3,876

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses can infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea (Koonin et al. 2006). Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants, and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, about 5,000 viruses have been described in detail(Dimmock et al. 2006), although there are millions of different types (Breitbart & Rohwer 2005). Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most abundant type of biological entity (Edwards & Rohwer 2005, Lawrence et al. 2009). The study of viruses is known as virology, a sub-speciality of microbiology. Virus particles (known as virions) consist of two or three parts: the genetic material made from either DNA or RNA, long molecules that carry genetic information; a protein coat that protects these genes; and in some cases an envelope of lipids that surrounds the protein coat when they are outside a cell. The shapes of viruses range from simple helical and icosahedral forms to more complex structures. The average virus is

via

Museum specimens

Specimen records
56
With media
56
Collections
CDA, CUP
Recorded in
United States
iDigBio →

Research

1,612,665 papers

via PubMed

~69 min read

Encyclopedic overview

43 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Origins
  • Microbiology
  • Discovery
  • Life properties
  • Structure
  • Giant viruses
  • Genome
  • Genome size
  • Genetic mutation and recombination
  • Replication cycle
  • Genome replication
  • Cytopathic effects on the host cell
  • Dormant and latent infections
  • Host range
  • Novel viruses
  • Classification
  • ICTV classification
  • Baltimore classification
  • Role in human disease
  • Epidemiology
  • Epidemics and pandemics
  • Cancer
  • Host defence mechanisms
  • Prevention and treatment
  • Vaccines
  • Antiviral drugs
  • Infection in other species
  • Animal viruses
  • Plant viruses
  • Bacterial viruses
  • Archaeal viruses
  • Role in aquatic ecosystems
  • Role in evolution
  • Applications
  • Life sciences and medicine
  • Virotherapy
  • Materials science and nanotechnology
  • Synthetic viruses
  • Weapons
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1892 article describing a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco plants and the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 16,000 of the millions of virus species have been described in detail. The study of viruses is known as virology, a subspeciality of microbiology.

When infected, a host cell is often forced to rapidly produce thousands of copies of the original virus. When not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell, viruses exist in the form of independent viral particles, or virions, consisting of (i) genetic material, i.e., long molecules of DNA or RNA that encode the structure of the proteins by which the virus acts; (ii) a protein coat, the capsid, which surrounds and protects the genetic material; and in some cases (iii) an outside envelope of lipids. The shapes of these virus particles range from simple helical and icosahedral forms to more complex structures. Most virus species have virions too small to be seen with an optical microscope and are one-hundredth the size of most bacteria.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “virus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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