Question

Pick one general feature of the RNA virus to discuss

Answer 1

General feature of RNA virus

Because of the error rate of the enzymes involved in RNA replication, these viruses usually show much higher mutation rates than do the DNA viruses. Mutation rates of 10*-4 lead to the continuous generation of virus variants which show great adaptability to new hosts. The viral RNA may be single-stranded or double-stranded , and the genome may occupy a single RNA segment or be distributed on two or more separate segments. In addition, the RNA strand of a single-stranded genome may be either a sense strand, which can function as messenger RNA (mRNA), or an antisense strand, which is complementary to the sense strand and cannot function as mRNA protein translation .Sense viral RNA alone can replicate if injected into cells, since it can function as mRNA and initiate translation of virus-encoded proteins. Antisense RNA, on the other hand, has no translational function and cannot per se produce viral components.

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