Hosts May Benefit from Infection by Persistent Viruses Because

question 30

Multiple Choice

Hosts may benefit from infection by persistent viruses because:

• A) hosts never come down with illness when infected by persistent viruses
• B) persistent viruses could encode growth factors beneficial to infected hosts
• C) persistent viruses shorten hosts' generation time, resulting in hosts that outcompete their competitors
• D) persistent viruses could encode toxins that kill off competing bacteria
• E) persistent viruses could improve hosts' efficiency in uptake of nutrients

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Definitions:

Morphological Homoplasy

The occurrence of similar body structures in different species not due to common ancestry, often resulting from convergent evolution.

Nucleotide Bases

The building blocks of DNA and RNA, consisting of adenine, thymine (uracil in RNA), cytosine, and guanine.

Obligate Symbionts

Organisms that require a symbiotic relationship with another organism to survive.

Pseudogenes

Sequences of DNA that resemble genes but are non-functional due to mutations, deletions, or insertions.