EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -All viruses have genetic material (a genome) made of nucleic acid. You, like all other cell-based life, use DNA as your genetic material. Viruses, on the other hand, may use either RNA or DNA, both of which are types of nucleic acid.

Detailed explanation-2: -Viruses are smaller and simpler in construction than unicellular microorganisms, and they contain only one type of nucleic acid-either DNA or RNA-never both.

Detailed explanation-3: -Definition. A virus is an infectious microbe consisting of a segment of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat.

Detailed explanation-4: -These require the host cellular machinery to replicate and propagate their infection. The genetic material in viruses is either RNA or DNA. It is not possible for a virus to contain both RNA and DNA. This is because (biologically speaking), there doesn’t seem to be any need for it.

Detailed explanation-5: -No virus contains both RNA and DNA. In general, viruses that infect plants have single stranded RNA and viruses that infect animals have either single or double stranded RNA or double stranded DNA. Bacterial viruses or bacteriophages (viruses that infect the bacteria) are usually double stranded DNA viruses.