Viral Replication

Viral replication is the central focus of much experimental virology and is a significant part of molecular biology. Studies with bacteriophages in their prokaryotic host cells in the 1940s and 1950s provided the first insights into the complexities of viral replication. With the development of mammalian cell culture procedures, the techniques used for the study of bacteriophages were adapted to animal viruses. Progress has been such that the basic mechanisms of transcription, translation, and nucleic acid replication have been characterized for all the major families of animal viruses and the strategy of gene expression and its regulation clarified. Many important biochemical phenomena such as the splicing and other types of posttranscriptional processing of RNA, the posttranslational cleavage and glycosylation of proteins, the replication of RNA, reverse transcription, integration, and the transposition of viral genes and cellular oncogenes were first elucidated by virologists and have general application in cell biology. The chapter provides a general overview on viral replication for understanding pathogenesis, immunity, chemotherapy, and the role of viruses in cancer.