Practice question
Question
Bacteriophages (viruses that uniquely infect bacteria) generally possess which type of genetic material?
Explanation
Viruses exhibit patterns in their genetic material based on their host. The NCERT textbook specifies that viruses infecting plants generally have single-stranded RNA, and those infecting animals have single/double-stranded RNA or double-stranded DNA. However, 'bacteriophages' (viruses infecting bacteria) are definitively and 'usually double-stranded DNA viruses', which they inject directly into the bacterial host cell for replication.