Virus Structure & Life Cycle for the MCAT: Tutoring Solution - Videos & Lessons

About This Chapter

The Virus Structure & Life Cycle chapter of this MCAT Prep Tutoring Solution is a flexible and affordable path to learning about virus structure and life cycle. These simple and fun video lessons are each about five minutes long, and they teach the information involving virus structure and life cycle required for the MCAT exam.

How it works:

Begin your review or other MCAT preparation work.
Identify the virus structure and life cycle concepts that you're stuck on.
Find fun videos on the topics you need to understand.
Press play, watch and learn!
Complete the quizzes to test your understanding.
As needed, submit a question to one of our instructors for personalized support.

Who's it for?

This chapter of our MCAT prep tutoring solution will benefit any student who is trying to review virus structure and life cycle and earn acceptable scores. This resource can help students including those who:

Struggle with understanding classification of viruses, virus mutation, the life cycle of a virus or any other virus structure and life cycle topic
Have limited time for studying
Want a cost effective way to supplement their MCAT preparation
Prefer learning MCAT topics visually
Find themselves struggling with the virus structure and life cycle portion of their review
Cope with ADD or ADHD
Want to get ahead in their MCAT preparation
Don't have access to MCAT review materials

Why it works:

Engaging Tutors: We make reviewing virus structure and life cycle simple and fun.
Cost Efficient: For less than 20% of the cost of a private tutor, you'll have unlimited access 24/7.
Consistent High Quality: Unlike a live MCAT prep tutor, these video lessons are thoroughly reviewed.
Convenient: Imagine a tutor as portable as your laptop, tablet or smartphone. Complete your virus structure and life cycle review on the go!
Learn at Your Pace: You can pause and rewatch lessons as often as you'd like, until you master the material.

Learning objectives:

Review the composition of viruses.
Explore the various shapes viruses can have.
Find out how viruses are classified.
Get an overview of replication of DNA and RNA viruses.
Examine how viruses mutate.
Brush up on the life cycle of a virus.
Learn about bacteriophages.
Find out about mechanisms and diseases of the retroviridae virus family, including AIDS.

10 Lessons in Chapter 19: Virus Structure & Life Cycle for the MCAT: Tutoring Solution

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1. What Are Viruses? - Definition, Structure & Function

In this lesson, you'll learn some historical facts about viruses and the material they are composed of. Find out more as we review the capsid, nucleic acids, the viral envelope, viruses, virions, bacteriophages and virology.

2. Shapes of a Virus: Helical, Icosahedral, Prolate, Complex & Enveloped

Learn about the different shapes viruses can have, such as helical, icosahedral, prolate, complex and enveloped. Find out why one shape is particularly useful from an energetic standpoint.

3. Classification of Viruses: Viral Genome and Replication Scheme

Find out how viruses are classified based on their being double-stranded, single-stranded, positive-sense, negative-sense, or by having something called reverse transcriptase.

4. Replication of DNA Viruses

This lesson will give you a basic overview of how DNA viruses replicate inside of a host cell. We will cover the entry, integration, replication and release of DNA viruses.

5. Replication of RNA Viruses

This lesson will give you a basic overview of how different types of RNA viruses replicate inside of an animal cell. We will cover the essence of being double-stranded and retroviruses, as well as positive-and negative-sense RNA viruses.

6. How Viruses Mutate: Antigenic Drift and Antigenic Shift

This lesson will discuss the major ways by which viruses, notably the flu virus, mutates. We will talk about recombination, reassortment, antigenic drift, antigenic shift, and more!

7. The Life Cycle of a Virus: How Viruses Live, Attack & Replicate

Find out how viruses infect and replicate as we explore the important steps of the virus life cycle, including attachment, uncoating, penetration, replication, and release, as well as the lysogenic and lytic cycles.

8. Viruses: Bacteriophage Lytic and Lysogenic Cycles

Viruses are generally not only our enemy but also the enemy of many other organisms. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect specific bacteria. In this lesson, we'll discuss their basic structure and infection cycle.

9. HIV and AIDS: Mechanisms and Diseases of the Retroviridae Virus Family

Learn about one of the most famous viruses in the world: HIV. We'll also delve into a condition you've almost certainly heard of: AIDS. Finally, we'll discuss the mechanisms of how viruses in this family cause so much damage and if there's anything you can do about it.

10. What Is an Acellular Organism? - Definition & Examples

Acellular means 'cell free.' Since life is made out of cells, how can an organism exist without them? Viruses are small, acellular microbes in the gray area between a living and nonliving organism. Learn more about them in this lesson.

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