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Introduction

Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth, meaning the variety of genes and species. It’s different from biodiversity, which means having a large number of different types of organisms living in an area. I’m just going to talk about how we think about the first definition right now. Species go extinct all the time so the gene pool is continually shrinking.

Classification of viruses

A virus is any virus particle. The most common type of virus is a simple single-stranded or double-stranded DNA or RNA molecule wrapped in a protein coat. Bacteriophages, which infect bacteria and other protists, are uncoated. Other types of viruses include adenoviruses, lentiviruses, poxviruses, rotaviruses, and reoviruses.

Discovery of viruses

A new species of the giant virus discovered in Antarctic ice, weighing a millionth of a gram, is the largest virus known. The science community has been closely watching this region to find out more about its diversity and abundance of microscopic life. This latest discovery was made with the use of a new technique called metagenomics that sequences DNA from all organisms in an environmental sample, instead of relying on traditional culturing techniques to grow the microorganisms in laboratory cultures for identification.

Structure of viruses

Viruses are essentially a strand of DNA or RNA wrapped up in a protein coat, and this is all that they require to start reproducing. The name for viruses comes from the Latin word for poisonous or venomous. Viruses enter their host cells and hijack the cell’s machinery to make more copies of themselves. This leads to more, larger cytoplasm around the virus which then bursts out into neighbouring cells, infecting them too.

Viral disease (for example AIDS)

If you have ever been diagnosed with a viral disease before, it is possible that the root of your new diagnosis is actually the same thing. Viral diseases are tricky because they can be reactivated from dormant states in your body. A simple mistake like not washing your hands after touching the surface of a table can wipe out an entire city’s worth of people when it comes to these diseases, which have no cure and are always fatal.

MCQs On Biodiversity (Acellular/Variety of Life)

Here are the MCQs from the PMC MDCAT on Biodiversity (Acellular/Variety of Life). 

1. Chapter: Biodiversity 
2. Total MCQs: 159