Microfilaments: composition and role in cleavage and contractility
Microfilaments, which are the thinnest among the cytoskeletal elements, support the cellular shape and all…
Cindy Ma
General function in cell support and movement
The cytoskeleton is a network of protein fibers that help with cellular movement and maintaining…
Oncogenes, apoptosis
Oncogenes are genes that cause cancer when mutated and apoptosis is programmed cell death. The…
Prions and viroids: subviral particles
Prions (misfolded proteins) and viroids (single-stranded RNA particles) are pathogens that are smaller than viruses. Prions and…
Transduction: transfer of genetic material by viruses
In transduction, bacteriophages move short pieces of chromosomal DNA from one bacterium to another “by accident.” Bacteriophages,…
Retrovirus life cycle: integration into host DNA, reverse transcriptase, HIV
Retroviruses, like HIV, have single-stranded RNA and contain reverse transcriptase to convert it to double-stranded…
Generalized phage and animal virus life cycles
For a typical virus, the lifecycle can be divided into five broad steps: attachment, entry,…
Size relative to bacteria and eukaryotic cells
A virus is about ten times smaller than a typical bacteria cell, and at least…
Genomic content — RNA or DNA
The genomic content of viruses can be made of RNA or DNA and can be…
Structural aspects of typical bacteriophage
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and generally have three main components (head, tail, tail…