How influenza virus enters the host cell

1,574 views · Published 19 March 2018 · 13:21 · Indexed 24 September 2026

Channel: Nikolay's Genetics Lessons · 2018 · Education

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Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites: they cannot reproduce outside of a cell. The production of new infectious particles must take place within a cell. Upon entering cells, viruses parasitize the host machinery to produce new viral progeny. The sum total of all the events that take place in a virus-infected cell is called the infectious cycle, or viral replication. Virologists artificially divide the infectious cycle into steps to make it easier to study. The steps include attachment and entry of the virion, translation of mRNA into protein, genome replication (producing more RNA or DNA), assembly of new particles, and release of particles from the cell. We’ll consider each of these steps, and then move on to a discussion of how influenza virus infects us and causes disease.

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