Asked by paisley

Why do viruses require living host cells to reproduce?
Question 1 options:

Viruses need chlorophyll from host cells for energy production

Viruses need oxygen from host cells for metabolic processes

Viruses are too large to reproduce independently in the environment

Viruses lack the cellular machinery for reproduction and metabolism

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Viruses lack the cellular machinery for reproduction and metabolism.

They are acellular particles (genome + capsid) without ribosomes, metabolic enzymes, or energy-producing systems, so they must hijack a living host cell’s machinery to replicate. The other options are incorrect (viruses don’t need chlorophyll or oxygen from hosts specifically, and they are generally much smaller than cells).