Question

List 8 characteristics based on which viruses are divided into different taxonomic groups.

Answer 1

Viruses:

1. A length of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA), encased in a protein coat, makes up a virus, an infectious bacterium.
2. A virus can't multiply by itself; it has to infect cells in order to utilize the host cell's components to make copies of itself.
3. The relative position of a set of organisms within a taxonomic hierarchy is known as taxonomic rank in biological categorization.
4. Characteristics based on which viruses are divided into different taxonomic groups:
   1. Virion's structure and composition
   2. the type of host employed - plant, animal, insect, bacterial, fungal
   3. Characteristics of nucleic acid – RNA or DNA, double or single-stranded, segmentation and molecular weight, sense of strand in ssRNA virus
   4. Immunological traits
   5. The symmetry of capsid–binal, helical, icosahedral
   6. Envelope’s presence and ether sensitivity
   7. Diameter of the virion or nucleocapsid
   8. Count of capsomers in the icosahedral viruses