Biology the most interesting things about viruses in detail. Viruses: interesting facts

1. Viruses are not living things. They have no cells, they cannot convert food into energy, and without a “host” they are just small clumps of chemicals.
2. Viruses, on the contrary, are not dead - they have genes, they reproduce, and the processes of natural selection operate on them.
3. Scientists struggled to detect viruses until 1892, when Russian microbiologist Dmitry Ivanovsky proved that tobacco plants were infected by creatures much smaller than bacteria. These creatures turned out to be a virus, specifically the tobacco mosaic virus.
4. American biochemist Wendel Stanley isolated the above tobacco virus in its pure form as needle-shaped protein crystals, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1946 in the field of chemistry.
5. Some viruses insert their DNA into bacteria through hollow hairs, which are present on many bacteria.
6. The word “virus” comes from a Latin word meaning “poison” or “dirty liquid,” which makes sense for a phenomenon that causes fevers and colds.
7. In 1992, scientists traced the source of pneumonia that broke out in England - it turned out that it was a virus hiding inside an amoeba living in the towers of a cooling tower. It was so large that at first scientists mistook it for a bacterium.
8. The so-called mimivirus is so named because it imitates the behavior and structure of a bacterium. Some experts believe that it is an intermediate link between bacteria and viruses, others are sure that it is a separate form of life. This virus is characterized by the most voluminous and complex set of DNA among all viruses.
9. The body of the mimivirus contains more than 900 genes that encode proteins that are not used in other viruses. Its genome is twice as large as that of other known viruses and even bacteria.
10. There are even larger viruses called mamavirus. Their sizes are larger than those of some bacteria, and these viruses also have satellite viruses, which are called Sputnik.
11. Amoebas are like sandboxes and soup kitchens for viruses - they absorb large objects within their reach and provide a source of nutrients for bacteria, which inside the amoeba exchange genes with other bacteria and viruses.
12. Viruses can infect animals, plants, fungi, single-celled organisms and bacteria. Mamaviruses, together with their companions, also infect other viruses.
13. We are all, perhaps, the result of the work of viruses, since a significant part of our genome contains “shards” and entire parts of viruses that penetrated into our ancestors millions of years ago and were “domesticated.”
14. Many of the formations in our cells are at first glance useless, which is also explained by the fact that these are viruses that have successfully taken root inside us at different stages of evolution.
15. Most of the ancient viruses introduced into our genome do not exist in nature in our time. In 2005, French scientists began work on “resurrecting” one of these viruses.
16. One of the viruses resurrected in this way, code-named Phoenix, turned out to be non-viable. Apparently, not everything is so simple.
17. Some viral fragments in our genome are apparently responsible for the functioning of the autoimmune system and the development of cancer.
18. We owe our very life to viruses - some of the proteins encoded by viral DNA in the mother’s body “correct” the body’s immune system so that it does not attack the embryo during development.
19. We are all distant relatives on Earth. Scientists have reason to believe that a billion years ago one of the viruses entered a bacterial cell and from this a cell nucleus emerged, which subsequently led to the formation of a variety of flora and fauna, including you and me.

Viruses are chemical elements that have existed throughout life on earth. They are nonliving substances, they do not have cells, and viruses do not convert food into energy.

What does a virus consist of?

Viruses reach a size of 20 to 300 nm, which is half the size of the bacterium itself. They cannot even be seen with a regular microscope. The virus contains:

• core – genetic apparatus (DNA or RNA);
• protein shell (capsid);
• lipoprotein layer.

A fully formed virus is called a virion.

Each component of this virion has a specific role: the protein shell protects the virus from all kinds of damage, nucleic acid is responsible for genes, infectious properties and is responsible for the ability of viruses to adapt to bacteria, and enzymes help in reproduction.

Interesting facts about viruses that are worth knowing

Fact 1. Even though viruses are dead, they reproduce, they have genes and natural selection.

Fact 2. They introduce their DNA into healthy bacteria, thereby making them the causative agents of all kinds of diseases.

Fact 3. Mimivirus has the most complex genetic structure. This element can replicate the DNA of the affected bacterium and its behavior. Scientists believe that mimivirus is a kind of gap between a bacterium and a virus.

Fact 4. The largest in size are mamaviruses, which have their own satellite viruses. Interestingly, they are capable of infecting even other viruses in addition to living beings.

Fact 5. Scientists have also found out the following facts about viruses - it turns out that the human genome contains the remains of those infected cells that our ancestors had millions of years ago.

Fact 6. Human cells contain formations that are not necessary for life. It is believed that these are viruses that have taken root in the body and do not manifest themselves in any way.

Fact 7. In 2005, scientists from France tried to resurrect the ancient virus, but it remained lifeless, which further puzzled the researchers.

Fact 8. When an embryo forms inside a woman, the immune system recognizes the new embryo as something foreign. Thanks to the viral DNA, which encodes proteins, the fetus is not in danger from the immune system.

Fact 9. The most interesting fact about viruses is that life on earth was formed thanks to them. Due to the penetration of a harmful virus into a bacterium, a cell was born, which subsequently formed life.

Let us immediately note that viruses are not living organisms.

The word virus comes from a term translated as poison or contaminated liquid.

Without a carrier, viruses are simply clumps of chemical elements. Because they lack cells, viruses do not have the ability to convert any food into energy.

Viruses are capable of introducing their DNA into the body of bacteria through cavities in the hairs.

Among the extremely interesting facts about viruses, we note some funny ones. Araucana chickens are capable of laying unusual eggs - they are bluish or light green. And the reason for this is the retrovirus that these chickens are infected with. It inserts a gene into the host DNA that causes an increased concentration of biliverdin, a yolk pigment, in the egg shell. Interestingly, the quality of the eggs does not change; they do not become more harmful or beneficial when compared with ordinary eggs.

Scientists spent a lot of time determining the routes of infection for pneumonia, which spread in Britain in 1992. It turned out that the virus then found refuge inside amoebas that lived in cooling towers located on the roofs, used in air cooling systems. Since the virus was large in size, scientists initially mistook it itself for the pathogenic bacterium.

Large viruses are called mamaviruses. Their dimensions often exceed the size of even some bacteria. Such viruses have satellite viruses.

There is a widespread hypothesis that people are the product of viruses - a significant part of the human genome consists of “shards” and even entire parts of viruses that penetrated our ancestors. This happened a long time ago; over a long period of time, this “cocktail” of viruses was “domesticated.”

It is assumed that part of the viral fragments in our genome is responsible for the functioning of the autoimmune system and the prevention of cancer.

Without the participation of viruses, we could not be born - in order for the embryo not to be attacked by the immune system during its development, it is “corrected” by part of the proteins recoded by viral DNA directly in the mother’s body.

Nowadays, most of the ancient viruses that once penetrated our genome do not exist in nature. For research purposes, scientists in France began to “resurrect” some of these viruses in 2005.

But not everything turned out so easy. One of the newly “resurrected” viruses, called Phoenix, was revived non-viable.

One of the most dangerous virus-borne diseases is Ebola. The first signs are fever, sore throat, severe headache and muscle pain. This often coincides with cold or flu symptoms. Then nausea, diarrhea appear, damage to the kidneys and liver occurs, and sometimes external and also internal bleeding.

Viruses are not living things. They have no cells, they cannot convert food into energy, and without a “host” they are just small clumps of chemicals.

Viruses, on the contrary, are not dead - they have genes, they reproduce, and the processes of natural selection operate on them.

Scientists struggled to detect viruses until 1892, when Russian microbiologist Dmitry Ivanovsky proved that tobacco plants were infected by creatures much smaller than bacteria. These creatures turned out to be a virus, specifically the tobacco mosaic virus.

American biochemist Wendel Stanley isolated the above tobacco virus in its pure form as needle-shaped protein crystals, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1946 in the field of chemistry.

Some viruses insert their DNA into bacteria through hollow hairs, which are present on many bacteria.

The word “virus” comes from a Latin word meaning “poison” or “dirty liquid,” which makes sense for a phenomenon that causes fevers and colds.

In 1992, scientists traced the source of pneumonia that broke out in England - it turned out that it was a virus hiding inside an amoeba living in the towers of a cooling tower. It was so large that at first scientists mistook it for a bacterium.

The so-called mimivirus is so named because it imitates the behavior and structure of a bacterium. Some experts believe that it is an intermediate link between bacteria and viruses, others are sure that it is a separate form of life. This virus is characterized by the most voluminous and complex set of DNA among all viruses.

The body of the mimivirus contains more than 900 genes that encode proteins that are not used in other viruses. Its genome is twice as large as that of other known viruses and even bacteria.

There are even larger viruses called mamavirus. Their sizes are larger than those of some bacteria, and these viruses also have satellite viruses, which are called Sputnik.

Amoebas are like sandboxes and soup kitchens for viruses - they absorb large objects within their reach and provide a source of nutrients for bacteria, which inside the amoeba exchange genes with other bacteria and viruses.

Viruses can infect animals, plants, fungi, single-celled organisms and bacteria. Mamaviruses, together with their companions, also infect other viruses.

We are all, perhaps, the result of the work of viruses, since a significant part of our genome contains “shards” and entire parts of viruses that penetrated into our ancestors millions of years ago and were “domesticated.”

Many of the formations in our cells are at first glance useless, which is also explained by the fact that these are viruses that have successfully taken root inside us at different stages of evolution.

Most of the ancient viruses introduced into our genome do not exist in nature in our time. In 2005, French scientists began work on “resurrecting” one of these viruses.

One of the viruses resurrected in this way, code-named Phoenix, turned out to be non-viable. Apparently, not everything is so simple.

Some viral fragments in our genome are apparently responsible for the functioning of the autoimmune system and the development of cancer.

We owe our very life to viruses - some of the proteins encoded by viral DNA in the mother’s body “correct” the body’s immune system so that it does not attack the embryo during development.

We are all distant relatives on Earth. Scientists have reason to believe that a billion years ago one of the viruses entered a bacterial cell and from this a cell nucleus emerged, which subsequently led to the formation of a variety of flora and fauna, including you and me.

Computer viruses were nothing more than a myth a few decades ago, but over the years the situation has changed dramatically. Nowadays, malware has become a very significant threat to governments and large international corporations, to small businesses and individual computer users. There is not a person in the whole world who would not risk being subjected to a cyber attack, no matter how powerful the antivirus software is on his computer. But still, every virus is always protected in the form of anti-virus software. In this article we will introduce you to the most terrible computer viruses of all time, but on shop.ico.kz you can learn about anti-virus security in more detail.

1. Creeper Virus

2. Viruses, worms and Trojans

3. Melissa

4. The dawn of the personal computer era

5. Viruses are illegal

6. Cybercrime

7. Losses - $38 billion

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The most expensive computer virus of all time was the MyDoom worm, which was launched in January 2004. It caused losses of $38 billion. According to preliminary estimates, this virus infected 25% of all emails.

8. Anonymous

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In fact, it is very easy to become a member of Anonymous - the most famous international hacker network. But only a few members of this organization are elite hackers capable of exploiting security flaws in computer systems and writing viruses.

9. Activation via link

10. Scary dynamics

11. Be careful, children!

12. Antiviruses are not omnipotent

13. VBA Microsoft Office

14. Wooden horse and virus

15. ILOVEYOU