Making Mischief

Viruses that infect bacteria are bacteriophages, or just phages. Their life history may include
up to two cycles (figure 16.7). The lytic cycle, as the name suggests, ends when the bacterium
lyses, or ruptures. It starts when the virus attaches to the surface of the bacterium and injects
its genome, and this genome, free in the cytoplasm, confiscates the cell machinery to
replicate and assemble multiple copies. The thousands of new copies of the virus burst from
the host bacterium to find new bacteria to infect and, so, quickly proliferate. In the lysogenic
cycle, bacteriophages do not kill the cell they infect, at least not right away. They inject their
genome, called a prophage, which then becomes integrated into the DNA of bacterium,
replicating along with the bacterium as it replicates.
Viruses that infect eukaryotic cells may exit peacefully, taking some of the plasma membrane
with them, or destructively, causing deadly lysis of the cell. Although it has some
idiosyncrasies, HIV is an example of such a virus, structurally resembling the flu or mumps
virus. HIV is a retrovirus, so named because instead of the transcription DNA > RNA, it
reverses this flow of genetic information (DNA<RNA), starting with RNA that makes DNA.
Upon first infection of the cell, the RNA genome of HIV produces DNA, which enters the
nucleus and becomes integrated, as a provirus, into the chromosomal DNA of the host cell.
Here, the provirus acts, like any active section of DNA, to synthesize products, in this case
more viral RNA and its associated proteins. These assembled new viruses leave the cell to
infect other cell (figure 16.8)
By lysing cells, some viruses directly kill the host. HIV does not. Instead, HIV weakens the
immune system of the host, a condition known as AIDS. At first, HIV enters and proliferates
in macrophages, cells that assist the immune system. Later, HIV enters critical cells of the
immune system, the white blood cells known as T lymphocytes, where in the virus multiplies,
filling and eventually lysing these cells as they exit. As the disease progresses, the exploding
numbers of the virus infect and gradually depopulate the body of T lymphocytes, leaving the
individual defenseless.
Individuals do not die directly from the disease, but indirectly, from a weakened condition
produced by the virus. So weakened, the individual falls prey to passing opportunistic
diseases or unchecked cancers that a healthy individual might otherwise ward off. A slow
death ensues.

Evolving Plagues and Pathogens

Our future is likely to be a future of plagues. The body counts will be high because our
human population is at an all time high and growing. Consider just a few recent examples.
The killer flu of 1918 traveled home with the soldiers of World War I. Worldwide, more
than 21 million people died of this virulent flu, many more than the numbers of soldiers who
died in the war itself. The Asian Flu of 1957 spread around the world. In the United States
alone, 100.000 died, and many more were infected . The Hong Kong Flu of 1968 infected

50 million Americans, 70.000 died. Eruptions of the Ebola virus in Africa can be particularly
deadly. It spread through contact. Within a few days of infections, symptoms may include
high fever, stomach pain, bloody diarrhea, and vomit reddened by intestinal hemorrhage,
death usually soon follows. Local mortality rates can reach up to 90 %. Imagine the
consequences if this Ebola virus broke out of Africa and became a worldwide epidemic.