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15.3: Acellular Pathogens

  • Page ID
    42671
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    Microbial pathogens are not always alive.  Viruses are non-living biological entities that require a host to replicate.  Although viruses carry genetic material that encodes the instructions to produce more of themselves, they do not metabolize and don't have a cellular structure.  Prions such as the protein which causes variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD), being simply misfolded proteins, do not even have genetic material.


    15.3: Acellular Pathogens is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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