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Size of Life

(neal.fun)
2530 points eatonphil | 1 comments | 10 Dec 25 16:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.229s | source
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its_ethan ◴[11 Dec 25 16:03 UTC] No.46233084[source]▶
Maybe it's a stupid question, but how does the poliovirus "work"? Like at this scale, the DNA strand is still pretty visible and a decent-ish percentage of the polio virus in size.. is it just a ball with DNA inside and not much else? How does it pack enough DNA to replicate itself into it's own size at that scale?
replies(1): >>46233567 #
1. zxexz ◴[11 Dec 25 16:35 UTC] No.46233567[source]▶
You’re pretty close actually. It’s a single strand of positive-sense RNA 7.5kb long, and a protein capsule. +ssRNA is treated as mRNA by the host and is directly translated into proteins.