Question

Who coined the term virus?

Answer 1

Hint: A Dutch microbiologist who has a great contribution in the field of virology and environmental microbiology.

Complete answer:
Viruses are considered as the very small particle that causes infections. These are called as the exception of cell theory and known as the connecting link between the living and nonliving. They show the signs of living only inside the host cell and are inactive outside them.
1. The contribution of the discovery of the virus was given to Dmitri Ivanowasky in the year 1892.
2. The name virus was coined by Martinus Willem Beijerinck.
3. He used the extraction of infected plants and concluded that the extraction can infect the healthy plant.
4. He called the fluid Contagium vivum fluidum.
5. A scientist named W.M. Stanley showed that viruses can be crystallised and these crystals are made up of proteins.
6. Viruses do not have their own machinery; they use the host’s machinery to reproduce and provide energy to them.
7. They contain either DNA or RNA as their genetic material and are enclosed by an envelop made mainly of protein known as the capsid
8. An outer envelope which is formed by the lipids.

Note:
1. Contagium vivum fluidum is a Latin phrase which means a fluid that causes infection.
2. The capsid of viruses helps in the protection of genetic material inside the host as the enzymes can digest open DNA and RNA.