EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Viruses infect all forms of organisms including bacteria, archaea, fungi, plants, and animals. Living things grow, metabolize, and reproduce. Viruses replicate, but to do so, they are entirely dependent on their host cells. They do not metabolize or grow, but are assembled in their mature form.

Detailed explanation-2: -Some viruses have an external membrane envelope. Viruses are very diverse. They come in different shapes and structures, have different kinds of genomes, and infect different hosts. Viruses reproduce by infecting their host cells and reprogramming them to become virus-making “factories."

Detailed explanation-3: -Unlike bacteria, viruses can’t survive without a host. They can only reproduce by attaching themselves to cells. In most cases, they reprogram the cells to make new viruses until the cells burst and die.

Detailed explanation-4: -Viruses are also microscopic but are different from other microorganisms. They, however, reproduce only inside the cells of the host organism, which may be a bacterium, plant or animal.

Detailed explanation-5: -Viruses cannot replicate on their own, but rather depend on their host cell’s protein synthesis pathways to reproduce. This typically occurs by the virus inserting its genetic material in host cells, co-opting the proteins to create viral replicates, until the cell bursts from the high volume of new viral particles.