VIRUSES

AND
ATYPICAL
BACTERIA
BIO 3213
FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA
OUTLINE
■ Viruses
– History
– Definition
– Composition
– Diagnosis
– Replication

■ Atypical bacteria
– Rickettsiae
– Mycoplasmas
– Chlamydiae

■ Uncommon bacteria
Viruses
HISTORY
-Pharaoh Ramses V - died in 1196 B.C. –
small pox
-Koch & Pasteur -1880s → Germ theory of
disease
– Esp. bacteria; Pasteur worked with
rabies- described as a poison)

■ Adolf Mayer – 1886

– Dutch chemist
– Tobacco mosaic disease transmitted
from diseased to healthy plant
HISTORY
■ Dimitri Iwanowski - 1892

– A Russian botanist – worked on

TMV

– Showed that extracts from

diseased tobacco plants could
transmit disease to other plants
after passage through filters

– Filters fine enough to retain

the smallest known bacteria
HISTORY
■ Martinus Beijerinick (1898)
– Dutch botanist – worked on TMV

– developed the modern idea of the virus

o different from a bacterium

■ Wendell M. Stanley (1935)

– American chemist

– Isolated TMV, studied the chemical make up of

purified virus

– Invention of the Electron Microscope -1931

HISTORY
■ Invention of the Electron
Microscope

■ Two types
– Scanning electron
microscope (SEM)
■ Surfaces of the viruses

– Transmission electron
microscope (TEM)
■ Internal structures of
viruses
HISTORY
EDWARD JENNER- British doctor
■ May 14,1796 - used cowpox-infected
material obtained from the hand of Sarah
Nemes, a milkmaid to successfully
vaccinate 8 year old James Phipps
■ July1 1796, Jenner challenged the boy by
deliberately inoculating him with material
from a real case of smallpox
Smallpox
– Caused by Variola virus
– 35% Mortality Rate
– Causes severe scarring & Blindness
– Eradicated by 1986
DEFINITION
■ Are OBLIGATE INTRACELLULAR PARASITES

■ NOT ALIVE –INFECTIOUS AGENT

■ Defined as a subcellular/ACELLULAR agent

consisting of a core of nucleic acid (NA) surrounded
by a protein coat that must use the metabolic
machinery of a living host to replicate and produce
more viral particles

■ Ultramicroscopic – smallest infectious agent (<0.2µm)

COMPOSITION
■ No ribosomes
– use host for protein synthesis; No ATP generating
systems

■ Contains either RNA or DNA

■ Multiply inside living cells

– Culturing of virus
■ Use of animals
■ Use of eggs
■ Currently culture is using tissue culture
COMPOSITION
■ VIRUSES contain PROTEIN COATS = CAPSIDS
– May be enclosed by an envelope
– Composed of capsomeres
– May be either :
■ Helical (long rods)
■ Icosahedral (many sided)
■ Complex

■ Capsid + NA = nucleo-capsid
– Different capsids
– Different NA
COMPOSITION
■ DIFFERENT TYPES OF VIRAL STRUCTURES
COMPOSITION
■ Polio virus = Naked; RNA, icosahedral virus

■ Dengue= Enveloped, icosahedral ss RNA virus

– Genus: Flavivirus

– Transmitted by the Aedes mosquito

■ What causes Influenza? Influenza virus

■ What causes Common cold? Rhinovirus

VARICELLA ZOSTER VIRUS (VZ
V). 
■ Enveloped
■ DNA virus
■ Order –??
■ Family – ??
■ Genus – ??
■ Species –??
■ Transmitted by ??
■ Disease – Chicken pox
HIV
■ Enveloped
■ RNA virus
■ Order –??
■ Family – Retroviridae
■ Genus – Lentivirus
■ Species –??
■ Transmitted by ??
■ Disease – ??
ZIKA VIRUS
■ Enveloped
■ Icosahedral RNA virus
■ Order - unassigned
■ Family – Flaviviridae
■ Genus – Flavivirus
■ Species –Zika virus
■ Transmitted by Aedes
mosquito
■ Disease - ??
NOVEL CORONA VIRUS (SARS-CoV-2)

■ Enveloped
■ RNA virus
■ Order –??
■ Family – ??
■ Genus – ??
■ Species –??
■ Transmitted by ??
■ Disease: COVID-19
COMPLEX VIRUSES
1. Poxviruses
■ Orthopoxvirus: smallpox virus
(Variola), vaccinia virus, cowpox virus, m
onkey pox virus
■ Parapoxvirus: orf virus, pseudocowpox,
bovine papular stomatitis virus
■ Yatapoxvirus :  yaba monkey tumor
virus, tanapox virus
■ Molluscipoxvirus : molluscum
contagiosum virus (MCV)

BRICK SHAPED, ‘DUMBBELL’ SHAPED

CORE
COMPLEX VIRUSES
2. Bacteriophages

■ Multiplication – 2 cycles: Lytic cycle

& lysogenic cycle

■ Outcome = release of virions from

the host cell
– Lytic cycle
– Lysogenic cycle
COMPARISION OF VIRUSES &
BACTERIA
DIAGNOSIS
Current diagnosis of viral diseases

■ Tissue culture (growth) in Vero cells

■ Serology e.g. Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay

or ELISA

■ Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR (Amplification of

DNA that is present)
DIAGNOSIS
ATYPICAL BACTERIA
ATYPICAL BACTERIA
■ Mycoplasmas
■ Rickettsiae
■ Chlamydiae

■ PROKARYOTES = EUBACTERIA (true bacteria) & ATYPICAL

BACTERIA
RICKETTSIAE
■ Obligate intracellular pathogens

■ Not cultivated on agar, only in

cell/tissue culture, embryonated
eggs

■ Spread by arthropod vectors

■ E.g. Rickettsia rickettsii (transmitted

by tick bite)

– Rocky mountain spotted fever

(RMSF) ~ WESTERN HEMISPHERE
MYCOPLASMAS
■ Smallest known free living organisms

■ Not obligate intracellular bacteria

■ 0.15 – 0.3μm dia (size of poxvirus)

■ Lack cell wall, resistant to penicillin

■ E.g. Mycoplasma pneumoniae

– Primary atypical pneumonia

CHLAMYDIAE
■ Obligate intracellular pathogens;
Smaller than the largest virus

■ Complex life cycle

■ E.g. Chlamydia trachomatis

– NGU - Non gonococcal
urethritis
– Lymphogranuloma
Venereum
– Trachoma
– Chlamydia
UNCOMMON EUBACTERIA -
Mycobacteria
■ Cell wall composed of mycolic acid
together with peptidoglycan

■ Do not stain with Gram staining

– Use of special stain
■ Acid fast staining technique

■ E.g. Mycobacterium tuberculosis –

TB
UNCOMMON EUBACTERIA -
Treponemes
■ Spiral bacteria

■ Spirochaete

■ Motile by axial filaments

■ E.g. Treponema pallidum

– Syphilis