DIFFERENTIATING DNA & RNA VIRUSES: By Leon Rogers Batia Leon Rogers Batia viewing a slide with a Compound Microscope Photo Courtesy of Baka PNG Official Viruses are everywhere and abundant. Viral infections can pose a mild risk to our health, like the common cold, or a threat to our lives, like an HIV infection. Viruses can be grouped according to their genetic material: DNA or RNA. Both types can infect host organisms and cause disease. However, the ways that DNA and RNA viruses infect host cells and take over the cell’s biochemical machinery are different. BASIC Viruses are small, nonliving parasites, which cannot replicate outside of a host cell. A virus consists of genetic information -- either DNA or RNA -- coated by a protein. A virus injects its genetic information into a host cell and then takes control of the cell’s machinery. This process enables the virus to make copies of its DNA or RNA and make the viral proteins inside the host cell. A virus can quick...