Important Facts For Prelims
Yaravirus
- 13 Feb 2020
- 1 min read
Why in News
Researchers have discovered an unusually small virus in a lake in Brazil.
- The virus has been named Yaravirus after ‘Yara’, a water-queen figure in Brazilian mythology.
- The Yaravirus infects amoeba and has genes that have not been described before, something that could challenge how Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) viruses are classified.
- DNA viruses are classified based on the protein that makes up their shell, or capsid. The Yaravirus' capsid doesn't resemble any previously known protein.
- The Yaravirus does not infect human cells.
Virus
- A virus is a small parasite that cannot reproduce by itself. Once it infects a susceptible cell, however, a virus can direct the cell machinery to produce more viruses.
- Most viruses have either Ribonucleic acid (RNA) or Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) as their genetic material.
- Diseases caused by Virus: HIV/AIDS, smallpox, Ebola, etc.
