Level of life
Cell
The smallest unit that can live on its own. Every living thing is made of one or more cells.
Virus
Nucleic acid in a protein coat. A virus cannot copy itself alone: it must infect a cell and use the cell's machinery.Source: NHGRISource: Baltimore, 1971
Step 4 of 7ReadingOrganism or group
How Virus connects
Virus uses
Virus is used by
Technology or method
Phage therapy
Treating bacterial infections with viruses that infect bacteria, an approach being studied again as drug resistance grows.
Emerging researchOpen in Microbe LabTechnology or method
Gene therapy
Treating disease by adding, repairing or switching off genes in a patient's cells.
Emerging researchOpen in Biotech Lab
Virus is related to
Level of life
RNA
A single-stranded relative of DNA. Messenger RNA carries a gene's instructions to ribosomes, and other RNAs help build proteins and control genes.
Structure
Immune system
The cells, tissues and molecules that defend the body against infection.
Explore further
Your progress
Sources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Virus (opens the original in a new tab)
National Human Genome Research Institute. Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms. National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducationalExpression of animal virus genomes (opens the original in a new tab)
Baltimore D (1971). Bacteriological Reviews 35:235-241.
Classified viruses by how their genomes produce mRNA.
Historical paperReview