Can a virus get a virus?

>>8637243
Yeah why not I think they're called virofages

Google "antigenic shift viruses"

It's why we need a yearly flu shot instead of just one every decade to account for random mutations

Are you retarded? First: a virus is a RNA + protein shell. Ist reproduces by injecting its RNA into a specific cell or sometimes bacteria for which its protein shell is build.
Second: It doesn't do or is anything else.
Thats like asking if a battery can get sick.

I don't think so. Viruses rely on cellular mechanisms to reproduce and viruses are not nearly as sophisticated as cells.

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>>8637243

>Hold up, let me help you there professor, Ill just use my telepo-UUUHHHGGGHAAA!

>>8637252
You might be able to change the viral rna or protein shell. But thats about it.

>>8637243

Viruses are not alive and cannot self replicate without a host.

They are more or less a strand of DNA or RNA. If they got infected, I think they basically would be considered a different or evolved virus.

In fact, humans splice our man-made/designer DNA/RNA into viruses so that we can use them as vectors, so in a way we "infect" them...

What about the idea of all cells and viruses sharing a common ancestor?

>>8637291
Horseshit, at best you can theorize viruses arose from transposable elements

>>8637252
>>8637257
Could a virus be able to inject it's DNA or RNA into another virus' capsid?

>>8637310

I have never read about that possibility, but that sounds like it could be feasible.

The viruses are extremely small (nm scale). My guess is that if one infected another it would be a rare event.

Cells are much bigger (micro scale), so it is a lot easier to target them.

>>8637310
Viruses would have evolved to infiltrate cellular membranes (phospholipid bilayers) and capsids are very different to cellular membranes (they're harder and more rigid) so that doesn't seem very likely to me.

>>8637310
no kuz wer de glycoprotens?!Q?11

Virophages. For example amoeba cells co-infected with sputnik virophage and APMV (mamavirus) produce less mamavirus particles and they are also often deformed which means they are ineffective.
It's caused by hijacking mamavirus proteins by the virophage in order to replicate.

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>>8637395
>mamavirus

The largest virus there is, bigger than many bacteria.

>>8637407
Amoeba ≠ bacteria

>>8637252
Actually you're the retarded one. Not all viruses have an RNA genome, and second, there are pathogenic RNAs which depend on helper viruses to propagate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virusoid
So in a sense you could say that they "infect" viruses.

High-schoolers should stay off /sci/.

>>8637416

It infects amoeba. it itself is larger than some bacteria.

>>8637248
>virofages
VIROFAGS GET OUT REEEEEEEEEEE

>>8637407

Being large is just part of why that virus is interesting.

That virus has DNA longer than some bacteria, and can perform functions that was thought to only occur in cellular organisms.

So this virus being able to be infected with a smaller virus just adds more to the weird.

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>>8637243
Is it possible to just tear a virus capsid apart via mechanical action?

>>8639083
>virus are invulnerable to force

>>8637310

They wouldn't be able to do that unless the virus capsid had the appropriate glycoproteins receptors embedded it. Which is what >>8637392 said, but he said it like an idiot.

>>8637243
Anti/Retro-viral engineering.
Viruses can get viruses, and we are already exploiting that to try to wipe some out.

>>8639380
>>8637392
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_envelope
Aaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

>>8639083
It's possible to tear proteins apart by mechanical action.. So why wouldn't it be possible for a capsid?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4065244/

>>8639976
The only problem I can see with something developing to attach to a viral glycoprotein is the rapid change that viruses can undergo. I can see it hindering a virus, but not for long. As for mechanically destroying a virus, . I think there are chemicals you can use to artificially denature a protein, it would have to be specific to the viral envelope, or all the host's proteins would just be denatured as well.

Viruses infecting other viruses doesn't work on a number of levels. No glycoproteins as mentioned but also since there are 4 types of strands for viruses (double and single strand RNA and DNA respectively) you have to understand that in order for a virus to make copies of itself it has to be built in the hosts DNA (and if its an RNA virus it has to first be turned into DNA through its own viral polymerase inside the cytoplasm). To do this it uses the hosts DNA polymerase inside the cell nucleus. No DNAP -> No invading the genome -> No transcription.

Antigenic shift is a thing too, but that's not what you're asking about.

>>8637432
Came here to say this

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>>8637310

>>8637432
Are those RNAs sort of like plasmids?

>>8641085

kek

>>8637243
Yes, there are some "micro-virus" species that attack viruses in the same way they attack our cells