Unit 1: Unity and Diversity
Topic 1.5: Viruses (HL) Questions
Practice 20 exam-style questions for IB Biology Topic 1.5. Review the question stems below, then unlock the full Question Bank to access markschemes, model answers, and AI grading.
1Identify1 mark
Reverse transcriptase catalyses the production of which molecule, and from which template?
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Which two parts are found in EVERY virus?
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Which feature is unique to a temperate phage but not to a purely lytic phage?
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In the lysogenic cycle, the integrated phage DNA sitting dormant inside the host chromosome is called a:
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Unlock Question5Identify1 mark
Which feature shows that a virus is non-cellular?
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The protein capsid of a virus is built from many repeating protein sub-units.
What are these sub-units called?
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Unlock Question7State1 mark
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State the term used to describe an evolutionary origin involving several separate, independent origins rather than one common ancestor.
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State the term for the phage DNA once it has integrated into the host bacterium's chromosome in the lysogenic cycle.
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State the types of nucleic acid that can make up a viral genome.
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State what is meant by the term lysis in the context of the lytic cycle.
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What happens to the host cell at the lysis stage of the lytic cycle?
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• Aimnova practice
State the type of nucleic acid that reverse transcriptase uses as its template, and the type of nucleic acid it produces.
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Which pair of outcomes best describes the net effect of one complete lytic cycle?
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A virus has a coat shaped like a many-sided 'ball' enclosing its genome.
Which capsid shape is this?
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Unlock Question15Identify1 mark
Which cells does HIV mainly infect, and what is the result of destroying them?
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During the entry stage of the lytic cycle, what actually passes into the host cell?
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The diagram shows a bacteriophage about to infect a bacterium.
Which labelled structure carries out attachment, and which holds the genome that is injected?
[Diagram: bio-virus]
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Which statement about the attachment stage is correct?
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Which sequence correctly orders the stages of the lytic cycle of a virulent bacteriophage?
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Unlock Question20Outline3 marks
• Aimnova practice
Outline how a virulent phage produces new copies of its genome and capsid proteins once its genome is inside the host cell.
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