Graduate Virology · Obligate Intracellular Parasites
Virus
Information on the run — the smallest replicators on Earth, the most numerous, and the most consequential for human health and the biosphere.
About This Course
Viruses occupy an awkward conceptual niche: they have genomes, they evolve by natural selection, they cause disease and pandemics, but they are inert outside a host cell and meet none of the standard definitions of life. They are also the most abundant biological entities on Earth — an estimated 1031 particles in the oceans alone, outnumbering bacteria by an order of magnitude and turning over a quarter of microbial biomass every day.
This course is the graduate-level companion to virology. We start with the filtration experiments of Ivanovsky and Beijerinck that defined the “virus” concept, develop the Caspar–Klug geometry of capsids, walk through the attachment–entry–replication–assembly–release life cycle, and survey the major virus families — RNA, DNA, retroviruses, bacteriophages. The final modules cover vaccines (live, killed, subunit, mRNA), antivirals, viral evolution, and the pandemic-preparedness lessons of the SARS-CoV-2 era.
Key Numbers
1031
Virus particles in Earth’s oceans
~20–300 nm
Typical virion size
~5–30 kb
RNA virus genome size
10−3–10−5
RNA virus mutation rate per base
~1010
HIV virions made/day untreated
7
Baltimore classification groups
Eight Modules
M0
Discovery & Classification
Beijerinck 1898 (contagium vivum fluidum), Stanley 1935 TMV crystal, the Baltimore classification (seven groups by genome strategy), virus species concept.
M1
Structure & Capsids
Helical (TMV) and icosahedral (T-numbers) symmetry, Caspar–Klug quasi-equivalence, enveloped viruses, complex (T4) and giant (mimivirus) capsids.
M2
Life Cycle
Attachment, entry (endocytosis vs membrane fusion), uncoating, genome replication, assembly, budding vs lysis. One-step growth curves.
M3
RNA Viruses
(+)ssRNA SARS-CoV-2 and poliovirus; (−)ssRNA influenza, rabies; dsRNA rotavirus; retroviruses HIV, HTLV. Polymerase fidelity and quasispecies.
M4
DNA Viruses
Papillomaviruses (HPV) and cancer; herpesviruses and latency; adenoviruses; pox; Hepatitis B (a pararetrovirus); polyomaviruses (SV40).
M5
Phages & CRISPR
T4 lytic, λ lysogenic, M13 filamentous. Phage therapy. CRISPR-Cas as adaptive immunity, Doudna & Charpentier 2012 / Nobel 2020.
M6
Vaccines & Antivirals
Live, killed, subunit, viral-vector, and mRNA platforms. Neuraminidase inhibitors (oseltamivir), polymerase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, mAbs.
M7
Evolution & Emergence
Mutation rates 10−6–10−3, recombination, reassortment, zoonotic spillover, the spillover-emergence pipeline, pandemic preparedness.
Cross-Links
Bacteria,Molecular Biology,Biochemistry,Pharmacology,Disease: New Approaches.