Question

Who is the father of Virology?

Answer 1

Hint: In Whittaker’s five kingdoms classification, there is no mention of some organisms like viruses and lichens but these are also important. Viruses (meaning ‘venom’ or ‘poisonous fluid’) have a unique place in the living world as they are entities sharing the characters of both living and nonliving.

Complete answer:
Virology is the process in which we study about viruses. Viruses were discovered by D.J. Ivanowsky in 1892, when he recognized certain sub-microscopic entities as causal organisms of mosaic disease of tobacco and are smaller than bacteria because they can be filtered through bacteria proof filters.

M.W. Beijerinck (Martinus Willem Beijerinck) was the father of virology because he was a Dutch microbiologist that uses the term ‘virus’ first. In 1898 he demonstrated that the extract of the infected tobacco plants can cause infection on healthy plants and called the fluid as ‘contagium vivum fluidum’ that means ‘living contagious fluid’.

Culture techniques originated by Beijerinck and known as enrichment culturing and he also isolated the wide range of microorganisms first. Virus propagation was only possible in other living cells, was stated by Beijerinck. He also discovered that the mosaic disease could not reproduce outside the plant, and the virus in the plant only multiplied in the growing parts.

Therefore M.W. Beijerinck (Martinus Willem Beijerinck) was the father of virology .

Note: Viruses are composed of nucleoproteins and are inert outside their specific host-like any other lifeless macromolecule. An inert virus is called viron. But they are able to reproduce inside the living host cell, using the enzymes and other metabolic machinery of the host. They cause a number of infectious diseases like common cold, chicken pox, mumps, rabies, etc.