Final answer:
SARS-CoV-2 does not undergo lysogeny like bacteriophages or latency like herpesviruses. Instead, it replicates its RNA within the host cell's cytoplasm and releases virions without integrating into the human genome.
Step-by-step explanation:
Can SARS-CoV-2 integrate into human cells (effectively undergo lysogeny)? the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, does not integrate its genome into the host cell's genome in the same way that HIV, a retrovirus, does. HIV is able to reverse transcribe its RNA into DNA and integrate it into the host's genome, thereby undergoing a cycle that can be comparable to lysogeny in bacteria. In contrast, SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus with a replication strategy that does not involve the integration of its genetic material into the DNA of the human host cells.
Lysogeny is a process where a bacteriophage's DNA is incorporated into the host bacterium's genome, becomes a prophage, and replicates along with the host cell's genome. This can theoretically produce more virions over time. However, coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 do not undergo lysogeny; they replicate their RNA in the host cell's cytoplasm and then assemble and release new virions, potentially causing cell damage or lysis.
The concept of latency is observed in animal herpesviruses, where the virus can remain dormant in the host cells without producing new virions, somewhat analogous to the lysogenic cycle in bacteriophages. Yet, SARS-CoV-2 is not known to establish latency in the same manner.
Therefore, although mechanisms like the lysogenic cycle and latency exist for other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 does not integrate into the human genome nor does it establish a latent infection within human cells as part of its replication cycle.