The viral ecology of aquatil crustaceans

Abstract

[Extract] The ecology of viruses predominately involves the interaction of the virus at the animal and cellular level. When the virions are in the extracellular environment, they are quiescent waiting to infect a living cell. The virions bind to the cell receptors, undergo decapsidation in the phagolysosome, pass the nucleic acid to the cytoplasm or nucleus and begin replication. Evidently, the ecology of viroses starts with entry of the virus into the crustacean, evading the immune system, invasion of the cell, replication, and release of new virions. The crustacean immune system is critical to the functional ecology of their viruses, so we must start with an understanding of this system to have any hope of understanding the ecology of the viruses in crustaceans.