Skip to main content
Biology LibreTexts

10.E: Viruses (Exercises)

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF
  • Page ID
    7384

    • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    These are homework exercises to accompany Kaiser's "Microbiology" TextMap. Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell (unicellular), cell clusters or no cell at all (acellular). This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes. Viruses and prions, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied.

    10.1: General Characteristics of Viruses

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. State 2 living characteristics of viruses.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)
    2. State 2 nonliving characteristics of viruses.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)
    3. List 3 criteria used to define a virus.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)
      3. (ans)
    4. A virus that infects only bacteria is termed a ___________________. (ans)
    5. State why viruses can't replicate on environmental surfaces or in synthetic laboratory medium. (ans)

    10.2: Size and Shapes of Viruses

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Compare the size of most viruses to that of bacteria. (ans)
    2. List 4 shapes of viruses.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)
      3. (ans)
      4. (ans)

    10.3: Viral Structure

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Briefly describe the structure of most viruses that infect humans. (ans)
    2. Define the following:
      1. capsid (ans)
      2. capsomeres (ans)
      3. nucleocapsid (ans)
    3. Describe how most animal viruses obtain their envelope. (ans)
    4. State why some bacteriophages are more complex than typical polyhedral or helical viruses. (ans)
    5. Multiple Choice (ans)

    10.4: Classification of Viruses

    10.5: Other Acellular Infectious Agents: Viroids and Prions

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Small, circular, single-stranded molecules of infectious that cause of a few plant diseases such as potato spindle-tuber disease,cucumber pale fruit, citrus exocortis disease, and cadang-cadang (coconuts) are called ____________. (ans)
    2. Infectious protein particlesthought to be responsible for a group of transmissible and/or inherited neurodegenerative diseases including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, kuru, and Gerstmann-Straussler- syndrome in humans as well as scrapie in sheep and goats are called ______________. (ans)
    3. Name 3 other neurological protein misfolding diseases that apprear to be initiated by prions. (ans)

    10.6: Animal Virus Life Cycles

    10.6A: The Productive Life Cycle of Animal Viruses

    10.6B: Productive Life Cycle with Possible Latency

    10.6C: The Life Cycle of HIV

    10.6D: Natural History of a Typical HIV Infection

    10.6E: The Role of Viruses in Tumor Production

    10.7: Bacteriophage Life Cycles: An Overview

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Name the 2 types of bacteriophage life cycles and state what the bacteriophage capable of each is called.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)

    10.7A: The Lytic Life Cycle of Bacteriophages

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Describethe 5 steps involved in the lytic life cycle of bacteriophages.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)
      3. (ans)
      4. (ans)
      5. (ans)
    2. Multiple Choice (ans)

    10.7B: The Lysogenic Life Cycle of Bacteriophages

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Describehow the lysogenic life cycle of temperate bacteriophages differs from the lytic life cycle of lytic bacteriophages. (ans)
    2. What is spontaneous induction as it relates to the lysogenic life cycle? (ans)
    3. When a bacteriophage inserts its DNA into the DNA of the host bacterium, this form of the virus is called a ________________. (ans)
    4. The host bacterium for a bacteriophage is called a ________________. (ans)
    5. A virus capable of the lysogenic life cycle is called a __________________. (ans)
    6. Multiple Choice (ans)

    10.8: Pathogenicity of Animal Viruses

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Briefly describe 4 ways viruses can damage infected host cells.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)
      3. (ans)
      4. (ans)
    2. Briefly describe 2 different ways viruses can evade host immune defenses and give an example of a virus that uses each mechanism.
      1. (ans)
      2. (ans)
    3. Multiple Choice (ans)

    10.9: Bacteriophage-Induced Alterations of Bacteria

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Describe how a bacteriophage may in some cases enable a bacterium to become virulent and state 2 examples. (ans)

    10.10: Antiviral Agents

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Explain why the antibiotics we use to treat bacterial infections are not effective against viral infections. (ans)
    2. Match the following drugs with the viral infections they are used against:

      _____ amantadine, rimantidine, zanamivar, and oseltamivir (ans)

      _____ acyclovir, famciclovir, penciclovir, and valacyclovir(ans)

      _____ foscarnet, gancyclovir, cidofovir, valganciclovir, and fomivirsen(ans)

      _____ AZT (ZDV), didanosine, zalcitabine, stavudine, nevirapine, delavirdine, saquinavir, and ritonavir (ans)

      1. HIV infection and AIDS
      2. influenza A
      3. severe CMV infections such as retinitis
      4. HSV and VZV infections
    3. Match the following:

      _____ These are drugs that bind to the active site of an HIV-encoded protease and prevent it from cleaving the long gag-pol polyprotein and the gag polyprotein into essential proteins essential to the structure of HIV and to RNA packaging within its nucleocapsid. As a result, viral maturation does not occur and noninfectious viral particles are produced. (ans)

      _____ These drugs chemically resemble normal DNA nucleotides, the building block molecules for DNA synthesis. They bind to the active site of the reverse transcriptase which, in turn, inserts it into the growing DNA strand in place of a normal nucleotide. Once inserted, however, new DNA nucleotides are unable to attach to the drug and DNA synthesis is stopped. This results in an incomplete provirus. (ans)

      1. nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors
      2. non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors
      3. protease inhibitors
      4. entry inhibitors
    4. Multiple Choice (ans)

    10.11: General Categories of Viral Infections

    Study the material in this section and then write out the answers to these questions. Do not just click on the answers and write them out. This will not test your understanding of this tutorial.

    1. Match the following:

      _____ Viral infections in which the infectious agents gradually increase in number over a very long period of time during which no significant symptoms are seen. (ans)

      _____ Viral infections of relatively short duration with rapid recovery. (ans)

      _____ Viral infections where the virus can be demonstrated in the body at all times and the disease may be present or absent for an extended period of time. (ans)

      _____ Viral infections where the virus remains in equilibrium with the host for long periods of time before symptoms again appear, but the actual viruses cannot be detected until reactivation of the disease occurs. (ans)

      1. acute viral infection
      2. chronic viral infection
      3. latent viral infection
      4. slow viral infection
    2. Give an example of of a virus causing each of the following:
      1. acute viral infection (ans)
      2. chronic viral infection (ans)
      3. latent viral infection (ans)
      4. slow viral infection (ans)
    3. Multiple Choice (ans)

    This page titled 10.E: Viruses (Exercises) is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gary Kaiser via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.