How Do Viruses Make Proteins

As viruses have no ribosomes, mitochondria, or other organelles, they are completely dependent on their cellular hosts for energy production and protein synthesis. They replicate only within cells of the host that they infect.

How does virus produce protein?

Without a host cell, viruses cannot carry out their life-sustaining functions or reproduce. They cannot synthesize proteins, because they lack ribosomes and must use the ribosomes of their host cells to translate viral messenger RNA into viral proteins.

Do viruses have protein?

However, all virus particles have a protein coat that surrounds and protects a nucleic acid genome. This protein coat is called a capsid, and the instructions for making the protein subunits of the capsid are encoded in the nucleic acid genome of the virus.