|
|
Article: Variola Virus
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, andSecurity
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Variola Virus
█
JULI BERWALD
Variola virus (or
variola major
) is the virus that causes smallpox. The virus is one of the members of the poxvirus group (
Poxviridae
) and it is one of the most complicated animal viruses. The variola virus is extremely virulent and is among the most dangerous of all the potential biological weapons.
The variola virus particle is shaped like a biconcave brick 200 to 400 nm long. Its inner compartment contains a highly compressed double strand of deoxyribonucleic acid as well as about 100 proteins and 10 viral enzymes. The enzymes are used in nucleic acid replication. Variola DNA contains about 250,000 base pairs, which make up about 200 ...