Why do scientists believe that most of the unexplored genetic diversity on Earth resides in viral genomes? Why is this genetic diversity important to human society?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: First, there are ten times as many virus particles on Earth as there are cells. Second, viral metagenomes from multiple environments have revealed that only about 25% of viral genes have a known function. This means that we don't understand approximately 75% of viral genes on the planet. Given that there are so many virus particles on Earth, there is a vast number of genes in viral genomes that are unexplored. More research is needed to discover and explore the function of unknown viral genes. Understanding the diversity of viral genes could help us understand animal and plant viruses and how they cause disease in humans, livestock, and crops. Understanding bacteriophages could also allow us to develop phages to control harmful or pathogenic bacterial populations. Lastly, unknown viral genes may produce proteins that could be helpful in industrial, medical, or research applications (new technology and applications).
You might also like to view...
The difference between thermal death time and thermal death point in microbicidal activity is that
A. thermal death time is the shortest amount of time required to kill an organism at a 100oC, whereas thermal death temperature is the lowest temperature required to kill an organism in 10 minutes. B. thermal death time is the greatest amount of time required to kill an organism at a specific temperature, whereas thermal death temperature is the lowest temperature required to kill an organism in 10 minutes. C. thermal death time is the shortest amount of time required to kill an organism at a specific temperature, whereas thermal death temperature is the lowest temperature required to kill an organism in 10 minutes. D. thermal death time is the shortest amount of time required to kill an organism at a specific temperature, whereas thermal death temperature is the lowest temperature required to kill an organism in 30 minutes.
A virus infects a host cell and takes over the host's mechanisms of replication and __________ synthesis. Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s)
________ mostly affects women, when breakdown of the bone outpaces the formation of new bone during bone remodeling
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word
Which of these is a correct order of taxonomic categories from most inclusive to least inclusive?
A) domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus B) domain, phylum, kingdom, order, class, family, genus C) domain, kingdom, class, phylum, order, family, genus D) kingdom, domain, phylum, order, class, family, genus