Question

Is a naked virus or an enveloped virus more resistant in the environment? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

The protein capsid of naked viruses is less susceptible to environmental conditions (lipid solvents, pH, temperature etc) than enveloped viruses.

As we know that the viruses are tolerant or sensitive to heat, detergents, solvents,alcohols etc. Enveloped viruses mean they have outer lipid layer of glycoprotein and lipoproteins (envelop) that can be neutralized easily by various chemical and physical agents and the markers or receptors usually located on that envelop which recognize the host cells. So for viral-host interaction and budding or release of viral progeny from the host cell this viral envelop has a vital role.That is why they are less tolerant to such agents than the naked (non-enveloped) ones.In naked viruses since the lipid content is negligible so they exhibit a bit good resistance to various agents.

Overall, we can conclude that naked virus are more resistant to environment.