The mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) is one of the most feared viruses for pregnant women. Recent statistics justify this fear: Infants born to mothers infected with ZIKV during pregnancy face a risk of up to 42 percent of developing birth defects, including microcephaly (an abnormally small head and decreased brain volume). What do we know about how ZIKV causes damage to the developing brain?

Several lines of evidence suggest that after ZIKV is transmitted to a pregnant woman via the bite of an infected mosquito, the virus then directly infects cells of the placenta, gaining access to the fetal brain. Following attachment, the virion would most likely enter the placental cell by:
a. insertion via the mosquito's mouthparts
b. endocytosis
c. degrading the cell wall with lysozyme
d. injection through a hollow, needle-like protein structure

Question

The mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) is one of the most feared viruses for pregnant women. Recent statistics justify this fear: Infants born to mothers infected with ZIKV during pregnancy face a risk of up to 42 percent of developing birth defects, including microcephaly (an abnormally small head and decreased brain volume).

What do we know about how ZIKV causes damage to the developing brain?

ZIKV is a Baltimore class IV virus. Based on this classification, what do you know about the structure of its genome?

Several lines of evidence suggest that after ZIKV is transmitted to a pregnant woman via the bite of an infected mosquito, the virus then directly infects cells of the placenta, gaining access to the fetal brain. Following attachment, the virion would most likely enter the placental cell by:
a. insertion via the mosquito's mouthparts
b. endocytosis
c. degrading the cell wall with lysozyme
d. injection through a hollow, needle-like protein structure

Accepted Answer

Hello everyone. And today we have a very short video regarding the viral genome. So let's jump straight into it. We have that. How is the viral genome introduced into the host cell? So remember that viruses need to enter the whole cell in order to replicate themselves and you expand. So let's look over answer choices so that we can better understand how these will allow the virus to enter the soul. Beginning by answer choice a by injection. And this is actually a process that's performed by bacteriophages which are viruses that attack bacteria and they inject the genetic information into the cells. So it is actually a true statement Then we have by endo psychosis. I want you to recall but the process of endo psychosis is and it is a process by which the cell is able to absorb certain outside nutrients or certain outside just things. If the sale of sorts of virus then the viral genome will also enter the cells. So this will also be a way by which viruses can enter the cell. And then we have by fusing the membrane to the house membrane. This works similarly to injection and this will also allow the viral genome to be introduced into the whole cell. So all of these three mediums or all three. All these three methods will allow the virus to introduce its biology genome into the cell in order for replication to occur. So we're going to select answer choice D all of the above as the final answer to our question. I really hope this video helped you. And I'll see you on the next one.

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Zika Virus Transmission

Endocytosis

Microcephaly and Birth Defects