Virus

[oranphil]

I wanted to ask this question and i have problems finding infomation and due to the fact there are very helpful people on this site i give it a shot.

 

I know that bacteria can swap genetic material and created a merged bacteria of some sort but my question is it possible for two virues to swap genetic material,if so how and what would be the outcome?

[CharonY]

They do not create a merged bacterium, but they can introduce new genetic material into their host cells. Either virus information (which is part of their infection process) or from a former host, usually due to erros in packaging the genetic material. The latter is referred to as transduction. Obviously, if a cell gets co-infected with several virus strains it is easy that they may get genetic material from the the other virus. Depending on what has been swapped there may be no or only subtle difference, but other things like e.g. extended host specificity may be one of the outcomes. Swine flu is such an example as it appears to carry material from avian, swine and human influenza virus strains.

[cameron marical]

A retrovirus is a virus that transplants foreign genetic coding into a host cells dna right?

 

so whats a normal virus put its genetic coding into?

 

thanks.

[CharonY]

That is not what a retrovirus is. All viruses add genetic information (their own) into their hosts. Retroviruses however do not have their genetic information on DNA, but on RNA. So they need a mechanism (reverse transcriptase) to write RNA back into DNA, before integration into the host genome. Hence the "retro".

[GDG]

I know that bacteria can swap genetic material and created a merged bacteria of some sort but my question is it possible for two virues to swap genetic material,if so how and what would be the outcome?

 

Yes, viruses can swap genes. If you have a host cell that is infected with two different viruses, you can have "crossing over" of the viral genes (especially if the viruses already have similar genes), resulting in new viruses that have an assortment of genes from each of the "parent" viruses. This is actually what happens each year with the flu virus, and why your flu shot from last year won't help you this year.

 

We classify flu viruses (at least the type A viruses) based on which of several "H" (hemagluttinin) and "N" (neuraminidase) antigens they display. Thus, you see reports of the current swine flu being "H1N1", which means type 1 hemagluttinin and type 1 neuraminidase, or the bird flu being H5N1. Flu (in general) infects humans, birds, and pigs: farming practices in which pigs and poultry are raised together are thought to provide a reservoir of virus and contribute to the reassortment of flu antigens.