Virus – An important biomolecule in Bio-engineering

Virus is one of the most important biomolecules which are used in bio-engineering. It is acellular, non-cytoplasmic infectious agents. They may be spherical or golf ball-like, rod-shaped, tadpole-like, helical or polyhedral. It replicates inside the living cells of other organisms and outside the cell, they behave like inert chemicals. Viruses contain only a single type of nucleic acid either DNA or RNA. They are host specific that they infect only a single species and definite cells of the host organisms. They cause highly infectious diseases to animals including human beings, angiosperms, bacteria and fungi. Human diseases like common cold, influenza, chickenpox, Ebola, AIDS, avian influenza, SARS are caused by viruses. Virus has a major application in microbiology, medicine and nanotechnology in production of vaccines, recombinant DNA etc. and has a great economic importance. This article contains fundamental information about virus on structure, classification, life cycle, major human diseases and its application in different sectors.