[halloooo]

I encountered this question on yahoo and found it rather interesting.

Do viruses follow the central dogma.

[canalon]

Depends.
Class III to V in the Baltimore classification system are basically following what was known as the central dogma. But the class VI (retroviruses) proved that the central dogma was an oversimplification, and not always true.

[yakowon]

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[halloooo]

So is there any difference between the genes and proteins of retroviruses and eukaryote?

[MrMistery]

well genes and proteins of viruses are usually different of those of eukaryotes, except that there are retrovirus-like transposons in the eukaryotic genomes (at least in the human genome, I don’t know about most other EKs). Your question is confusing

[canalon]

OK The central dogma was:
Genetic Info is stored as DNA then transcribed in mRNA and finally translated in protein. This is a one way sequence.
Now open your textbook on RNA viruses and look how they store the genetic information (that should be obvious) and how the protein are produced. You will see that the answers are slightly different for the different classes of RNA viruses, but that for dsRNA, +ssRNA and -ssRNA are a bit off the archetypal model, but still following the basic rule of the (now outdated) central dogma, that is the unique direction of the flow of the genetic information. However the last class (retroviruses) proved that even that rule was not universal. I let you find the details.

[LifeTein]

I agree with canalon about the central dogma. The dogma will not be universal as we have deeper knowledge about viruses. Viruses are small. But definitely it is one of the most mysterious life forms in the world.

[Author]

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