Talk:Virus (biology)

Article Checklist for "Virus (biology)"

Workgroup category or categories	Biology Workgroup [Categories OK]
Article status	External article: from another source, with little change
Underlinked article?	No
Basic cleanup done?	Yes
Checklist last edited by	--Joe Quick (Talk) 00:10, 22 March 2007 (CDT)

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Images and templates removed during Big Cleanup

Image:t4bacteriophage.jpg|thumb|An artificially coloured electron micrograph of a bacteriophage]] Template:Details

Image:Tobacco_mosaic_virus_structure.png|center|thumb|200px|Diagram of a helical capsid

Image:Coronaviruses_004_lores.jpg|center|thumb|200px|Electron micrograph of icosahedral virions

Image:800px-HIV_Viron.png|thumb|center|200px|Diagram of enveloped HIV

Image:Tevenphage.png|thumb|center|200px|Diagram of a bacteriophage

Image:Polyomavirus_SV40_TEM_B82-0338_lores.jpg|thumb|200px|right|An electron micrograph of multiple polyomavirus virions

Image:Bacteriophage.jpg|thumb|200px|left|A falsely coloured electron micrograph of multiple bacteriophages

Image:Rotavirus_TEM_B82-0337_lores.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Multiple rotavirus virions

Image:Ebola_Virus_TEM_PHIL_1832_lores.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The helical Ebola virus

Image:Marburg_virions_TEM_275_lores.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The Marburg virus

Image:Plaque_assay_macro.jpg|thumb|left|A viral plaque assay

Image:Polio_EM_PHIL_1875_lores.PNG|thumb|170px|right|The polio virus

Image:Reconstructed_Spanish_Flu_Virus.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The reconstructed 1918 influenza virus

discussion

David and Nancy, I noticed you got started on this article. What do you make of the assertion in the opening section that viruses do not have a cell membrane? This seems a bit misleading since they do have a membrane when outside the cellular environment. It may also be a circular argument since if they are not defined as cells they of course they cannot have a cell membrane. I have to admit i am in the camp that viruses are most certainly alive but represent a highly derived life form that is simplicity at its most elegant. Chris Day (Talk) 01:49, 12 December 2006 (CST) Italic text

discussion

There are several things that need fixing in this article, not counting typos: is metabolize metabolise for Brits (parasitised, fossilised)? First, prions are small protein fragments, so calling them virus-like particles seems dubious to me. Viruses cause an infection while prions cause protein aggregation (plaques). In the intro paragraph, mentioning the capsid, more should be explained about membrane proteins, envelope proteins and capsid proteins. Cells have cell membranes and some viruses have virus membrane proteins. Are cells dead because they lack viral membranes? The part about associating cancer with viruses should give credit to someone in the 1920s or so, I think, not the recent cervical cancer/virus studies. I would have to look that one up. The article often uses the word "as" when it should be "because". I've forgotten the other stuff and will need to re-read it again. --David E. Volk 17:14, 23 April 2007 (CDT)

discussion

Oh yes, there are more than four kinds of nucleic acids. Consider 3-stranded DNA for examples. --David E. Volk 17:18, 23 April 2007 (CDT)