Concept
Version 8
Created by Boundless
Viral Morphology
Examples of virus shapes
Viruses can be either complex in shape or relatively simple. This figure shows three relatively-complex virions: the bacteriophage T4, with its DNA-containing head group and tail fibers that attach to host cells; adenovirus, which uses spikes from its capsid to bind to host cells; and HIV, which uses glycoproteins embedded in its envelope to bind to host cells.
Source
Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:
"OpenStax College, Viral Evolution, Morphology, and Classification. October 16, 2013."
http://cnx.org/content/m44595/latest/Figure_21_01_03.png
OpenStax CNX
CC BY 3.0.