Part III: Basic Virology

Part III. Basic Virology

The proteins on the external surface of viruses serve several important functions. Regarding these proteins, which one of the following statements is most accurate?

(A) They are the antigens against which neutralizing antibodies are formed.

(B) They are the polymerases that synthesize viral messenger RNA.

(C) They are the proteases that degrade cellular proteins leading to cell death.

(D) They are the proteins that regulate viral transcription.

(E) Change in conformation of these proteins can result in prion-mediated diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

If a virus has an envelope, it is more easily inactivated by lipid solvents and detergents than viruses that do not have an envelope. Which one of the following viruses is the most sensitive to inactivation by lipid solvents and detergents?

(A) Coxsackie virus

(B) Hepatitis A virus

(C) Herpes simplex virus

(D) Poliovirus

(E) Rotavirus

Regarding the tegument, which one of the following is most accurate?

(A) It uncoats the virion within the phagocytic vesicle.

(B) It mediates the binding of the virion to the cell surface.

(C) It guides the viral core from the cytoplasm to the nucleus.

(D) It is the site at which new virions bud from the surface of the infected cell.

(E) It is the location of proteins in the virion that act as viral transcription factors.

Many viruses are highly specific regarding the type of cells they infect. Of the following, which one is the most important determinant of this specificity?

(A) The matrix protein

(B) The polymerase in the virion

(C) The protease protein

(D) The surface glycoprotein

(E) The viral mRNA

Your summer research project is to study the viruses that cause upper respiratory tract infections. You have isolated a virus from a patient’s throat and find that its genome is RNA. Furthermore, you find that the genome is the complement of viral mRNA within the infected cell. Of the following, which is ...