Some viruses can be crystallized and their structures analyzed. One such virus is yellow mottle virus, which infects beans. This virus has a single-stranded RNA genome containing about 6300 nucleotides. Its capsid is 25-30 nm in diameter and contains 180 identical capsomeres.If the yellow mottle virus begins its infection of a cell by using its genome as mRNA, which of the following would you expect to be able to measure? A) replication rate B) transcription rate C) translation rate D) formation of new transcription factors
Biology · High School · Tue Nov 03 2020
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The correct answer is option C) translation rate.
- If the yellow mottle virus begins its infection by using its genome as mRNA, the cell's ribosomes would immediately recognize the viral RNA as a message for protein production. Thus, you would expect to measure the translation rate, which is the process by which ribosomes synthesize proteins based on the sequence of the viral RNA genome.
- Translation involves decoding the RNA into a polypeptide chain, which will eventually fold into an active protein, such as those that comprise the virus's capsid or enzymes required for the virus to replicate its RNA.