Intro to Eucaryotic Viruses
or
Problems of a Virus' Operating in a Eukaryotic Universe

1. "What am I up against?" asked the wee virus.
   1. The stereotypic eukaryotic cell
   2. What generally goes on where?

2. Knocking at the Door
   1. Basic ways of studying such a viral infection
      1. Loss of accessibility to outside inactivation (think: "Ab")
      2. Recoverability of infectivity from the cell surface
      3. Isolation of cell receptors that inactivate the virions
         1. The story of myxoviral (e.g.: flu) grazing of erythrocytes
         2. Cholera bacteria's neuriminidase (sialidase)
            (Research project: Does flu render meningococcus and E. coli K1 susceptible to phagocytosis?)
      4. Metabolic inhibitors
      5. Radioisotopic tracers

   2. Getting inside without fancy injecting equipment
      1. Looking like delicious benign cell junk - lipoporotein enveloped myxoviruses
      2. Un-enveloped streakers such as poliovirus
      3. The jet set with lots of fancy equipment - small pox and vaccinia

   3. Varied specificity of attachment
      1. Primate viruses only attach to primate cells
      2. Adenovirus attaches to human, guinea pigs, rats, and hamsters
      3. HeLa has receptors for both vaccinia and poliovirus
      4. Chick embryo has receptors for only vaccinia but not polio

3. "What kind of genetic material do I have?"
   the virus asked trying to read its own mind.
   1. An RNA-genome's hurdles (flu, polio; HIV; RSV, RAV)
   2. A DNA-genome's hurdles (pox, adenovirus, AAV, herpes)

4. The Cell's Downfall: Opening Pandora's Box
   1. Myxoviruses - unwrapped in "food" vacuoles and tightly membrane bound (Mel Green)
   2. Polio - slip through the membranes and become so distorted they open up (Mandel)
   3. Pox (but not chickenpox, which is a herpes) - very intricate (Duke's Joklik)
      1. Ingested and loss of phospholipid envelope, which is, in part, "inducer protein".
         There is little membrane association.
      2. Release of "inducer protein" that causes cell to make new mRNA in nucleus
      3. mRNA goes to cytoplasm and is translated to "uncoating protein"
      4. DNA-genome of pox is uncoated - Pandora's Box is finally opened!
5. Once Inside the Cell, now where?
   1. Cytoplasm
   2. Nucleus
   3. Mitochondria
   4. Chloroplasts