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True or False. You would expect to see a viral envelope on a virus infecting a plant cell.

User Tim Elhajj
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Final answer:

True, plant viruses typically do not have a viral envelope; they often require external damage to the plant's cell wall to enter the cells rather than utilizing an envelope.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement that plant viruses generally do not possess a viral envelope when infecting a plant cell is True. Plant viruses, such as the tobacco mosaic virus, usually enter plant cells through damage in the plant's cell wall rather than receptor-mediated endocytosis. This is unlike many animal viruses, some of which use an envelope for entry into the host cell. While the envelope offers advantages such as avoiding host immunity and non-lytic release from the host cell, it is not a feature typically associated with plant viruses. Plant viruses are considered biotrophic parasites, capable of establishing infection without necessarily killing the host, a strategy similar to the lysogenic life cycle. Plant viruses must often overcome the physical barrier of the plant cell wall to establish an infection, typically exploiting external damage for entry

User DuoSRX
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