The virus has more secrets to reveal

The beginning of the beginning: In search of the trigger for virus reproduction

Back to the question that virus research had been dealing with from the very beginning: What is a virus?

The insight that the information for virus replication is contained in ribonucleic acid (RNA) suggested that there must be some interaction between the virus and the host cell. Viruses lack one particular thing: they don't have a mechanism that reads their own information and converts it into protein structures. For this reason they have to use the translation mechanisms of a cell on the ribosomes. The virus is thus unlike either a protein molecule with its “chemical” replication or an organism with its own metabolism.
The nature of a virus can thus be described by reference to its particularly parasitic way of reproducing.

From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, work groups associated with Mundry dealt with the first step in virus replication. They were in particularly close contact with groups in Strasbourg and England.

Further information for experts: Stuttgart's contributions to understanding the replication trigger