Plus and Minus strands of viruses

[aftabac]

Hi
What is basis of classification of plus and minus strands in Viruses?



regards
aftab

[pipette_man]

Hello Aftab,

For viruses that contain RNA as coding nucleic acid, the strands are said to be either positive-sense (+ or also called plus-strand) or negative-sense (- or also called minus-strand).

The naming is dependent on whether it is complementary to viral mRNA.


Positive-sense (+) viral RNA is identical to viral mRNA and thus can be immediately translated by the host cell.

Negative-sense (-) viral RNA is complementary to mRNA and must be first converted to positive-sense RNA by an RNA polymerase before translation.

DNA viral strand nomenclature is similar to RNA nomenclature, in that the coding strand for the viral mRNA is complementary to it (-), and the non-coding strand is a copy of it (+).

Hope this helps

[aftabac]

Hi
thanks for this elaborate answer. Hopefully this will help many other researchers.


regards
aftab