NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -It has been known for decades that once a virus gets inside a cell, it hijacks the cellular processes to produce virally encoded protein that will replicate the virus’s genetic material.

Detailed explanation-2: -To trigger infection, a virus binds to receptors on a host cell’s plasma membrane. This interaction induces virus internalization, and initiates a complex journey of the viral particle into the host’s interior that leads to either nonproductive or productive infection (Mercer et al.

Detailed explanation-3: -A virus must use cell processes to replicate. The viral replication cycle can produce dramatic biochemical and structural changes in the host cell, which may cause cell damage. These changes, called cytopathic (causing cell damage) effects, can change cell functions or even destroy the cell.

Detailed explanation-4: -Since viruses are intracellular parasites, they rely on their host cells for the energy, macromolecular synthesis machinery and the work benches for genome replication and particle assembly. Because of this dependence, viruses have evolved a myriad of mechanisms for exploiting normal host cell functions.

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.