Question

Discuss viruses in relation to the nature of genetic material they possess.

Answer 1

A virus is essentially a non-living entity outside its host's body and uses the host for its own reproduction. Once it gets inside the host's cell, it takes control of the cellular machinery to produce more virus particles. The type of genetic material that a virus possesses varies considerably. In terms of genetic material, a virus may possess either DNA or RNA. These may either be single-stranded or double-stranded enclosed in a protein shell called capsid. It is important to note that a virus may possess either DNA or RNA as its genetic material, but never both. Most of the DNA viruses replicate in the nucleus, while most RNA viruses replicate in the cytoplasm.