Study Guide: Cell Types vs. Viruses

To-Do Date: Feb 22 at 9:30pm

Cell Types and Viruses Class Drawing .pngCompare and Contrast

A popular meme of batman slapping robin.

This week we are going to learn about the two main types of cells (prokaryotic and eukaryotic) and viruses. The essential theme of this week is to compare (find the similarities) and contrast (find the differences) between these different groups.  

There are two main reasons why it is important to be know  how these structures are similar and how they are different.  I think it is intuitive that if I want to kill off an infection, but not damage my own body, I need to target the structures and functions that are unique to that organism! 

 

This Week's Content 

Here are questions to help you organize the information that you learn from the videos and readings.   I will use these to write the quiz. 

1. What  are the organelles we learned about in eukaryotic cells? What does each one do? 

      • Draw a eukaryotic cell and label the following organelles: nucleus, mitochondrion, ribosome, lysosome
      • What is the function of each organelle listed above.  Write that next to the label.  

2.  What do all cells (prokaryotic and eukaryotic) have in common? How are they different? 

      • create a list of the similarities and  differences between eukaryotic cells and prokaryotic cells as you can.

3. What are the similarities and differences between viruses and bacteria? Make a table like the one below to organize your notes. Use the sub-questions below to guide you.

      • What do both viruses and bacteria have? 
          • where can both live? 
        • What do only viruses have?
          • how do viruses replicate that's unique compared to bacteria?
        • What do only bacteria have? 
        • Do you think that viruses are alive? 

 

Viruses vs. Bacteria notes
True of viruses only True of both viruses and bacteria True of bacteria only

4. Draw a virus (there are many kinds, choose 1 on which you can identify all 3 features). Use the chart below to organize your notes.

        • on your virus, label the following features:
          • capsid
          • nucleic acid
          • envelope
        • for each of the 3 features, describe its importance for the virus
Viral feature Importance to virus Labeled virus drawing including the  three features
capsid
envelope
nucleic acid

 

 

 

Assessment Problem Set Questions

C1. Why won't antibiotics work on viruses? ( to answer this question you will need to: a) describe the differences between bacteria and viruses and b) explain what antibiotics are and how they kill bacteria but not human cells) 

C2. Explain how a virus infects and reproduces inside a host cell. Use the following vocabulary, capsid, host membrane proteins, viral genetic material, replication, lysis.

 

In the comic, Robin says "I think I need antibiotics for my col..." Batman slaps him, saying "IT'S A VIRUS!" Why won't antibiotics work on a cold? Try revisiting the comic after answering the study questions. 

p.s. violence is bad!