Structure of prokaryotic cells and of viruses

• Capsule is a slime coating that helps protect the bacteria
• Flagellum is a hair like structure that rotates to enable movement
• Plasmid is a small loop of DNA and can be passed from prokaryote to prokaryote
• Nucleoid is a concentrated area containing the DNA that is floating free in the cytoplasm
• Plasma membrane is made up of mainly of proteins and lipids and controls the movement of substances into and out of the cell
• Viruses are acellular non-living particles
• Viruses are 1000x smaller than bacteria
• Viruses require a living cell to reproduce
• Viruses have genetic material inside called RNA
• Virus replication :

  1. virus attaches to cell
  2. virus injects genetic material into cell
  3. cell reproduces the genetic material and reads it creating new viral proteins
  4. virus leaves cells