Chapter 18, Problem 35A

Summary Introduction

To describe:

The disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

Introduction:

The viruses are the small pathogen having nucleic acids and a protein capsule around it. The bacteria are the prokaryotic organism that can live independently as well as dependent on other organisms.

Explanation of Solution

Bacteria and viruses are two types of pathogens. Pathogens are the organism that can cause illness in an organism.

Viruses are acellular pathogens, which are not considered as alive. They are known to have genetic material (DNA or RNA) which they use to make proteins. These viral proteins cause changes in the normal physiology of the host organism and results in a different type of illness. Viruses cannot reproduce outside the host body and all the viruses are pathogens.

Bacteria are the prokaryotes, which are considered as one of the organisms present when life evolved on earth. All bacteria are not disease-causing, some of the bacteria are nonharmful and some bacteria are beneficial as well. The infectious bacteria generally cause infections by producing different types of toxins and other chemicals. They are capable of destroying the cells, but they do not transfer their genome to host cells.