(a) Discuss whether viruses are living or non-living organisms and explain why viruses are

obligate parasites.

Viruses are considered to exist between chemistry and life as they possess both living and non living
characteristics

Living characteristics:
1. Virus can reproduce at a fast rate but only upon infecting living host cells
2. They possess a genome, capable of transmitting their genetic characteristics from one viral
generation to the next.

Non Living Characteristics:

1. Viruses are acellular they lack key cellular components such as cytoplasm and cellular organelles
2. They do not carry out metabolic processes outside a host cell, since they lack essential cellular
machinery and thus are unable to grow and divide on their own.
3. Viruses have either DNA or RNA genomes, which can be single or double stranded
4. They are not capable of movement.

Obligate parasites
1. Cannot replicate independently must rely on entering a host cell to carry out their replication cycle
2. Virus exploits the energy resources, raw materials and metabolic machinery of host cell

(b) Describe the structural components of viruses.

(c) Describe the reproductive cycles of the following virus types:
i. bacteriophages that reproduce via a lytic cycle, e.g. T4 phage;
ii. bacteriophages that reproduce via a lysogenic cycle, e.g. lambda phage;
iii. an enveloped virus e.g. influenza;
iv. retroviruses e.g. HIV.
(d) Explain how viral infections cause disease in animals, e.g. mammals, through the disruption
of host tissue and functions (e.g. HIV and T helper cells [details of the immune system are not
required], influenza and epithelial cells of the respiratory tract).

( ALL FOUND IN NOTES )

(e) Describe the structure of a bacterial chromosome including the arrangement of DNA within
bacterial cells.

(f) Describe the process of binary fission, transformation, transduction and conjugation in
bacteria and explain the role of F plasmids in bacterial conjugation. (Knowledge of Hfr is not
required.)

(g) Distinguish between structural and regulatory genes. A structural gene is a region of DNA that
codes for a protein or RNA molecule that forms part of a structure or has an enzymatic
function (e.g. lacY, lacZ, lacA, but excludes lacI). A regulatory gene codes for a specific
protein product that regulates the expression of the structural genes (e.g. lacI).

(h) Distinguish between the concept of repressible and inducible systems of gene regulation
using trp and lac operon as examples respectively (attenuation of trp operon is not required).

(i) Describe the concept of a simple operon (using lac operon as an example).