Animal Viruses And Immunity
Viruses are infectious agents that aren't cellular in nature. They contains a macromolecule
genome packaged within a protein shell. Although relatively simple,
viruses exhibit significant diversity in terms of size,
genome organization, and capsid architecture. All
viruses are obligate intracellular parasites as they need to obtain energy and building blocks from the cell. They subvert many host cell processes for his or her own replication, and studying virus
replication has provided detailed
information about the essential workings of cells. At the cellular level, possible outcomes of
infection range from production of virus particles without damage to the cell, to necrobiosis, or occasionally cell transformation. In humans and animals the outcomes of
infection range from inapparent (no disease) to considerable disease and death. Some
viruses cause acute infections lasting for days or a couple of weeks while others infect their hosts for a lifetime.
Viruses can evolve and rapidly adapt to changing conditions. Some
viruses are easily replicated in cultured cells, while others require specific conditions only found in specialized
cells within a person's or animal. While this text focuses on
viruses of humans and other animals,
viruses infect organisms of all kinds, from bacteria to fungi to plants.
Viruses are most frequently classified supported groups of
genome and virion characteristics.
Genome sequence comparisons provide an unbiased method for grouping and categorizing viruses.
Immunity is an in depth topic, deserve an encyclopedia of its own. Here we cannot summarize the sector intimately, but will identify key concepts. These concepts include the difference between innate and purchased
immunity and therefore the way they relate to every other; the notions of specificity and immune memory; the sometimes antagonistic concepts of self and danger; and the mutually defined ideas of an antigen and its receptor.
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