Difference Between Bacteria and Virus

Check our previous articles for More detail study;

• What is bacteria? Types, Structure, Shapes, Morphology, Nutrition, Growth, Habitat, Reproduction, Examples.
• Virus Structure and Application, Origin, Definition, Characters, and Example.

Bacteria

Bacteria are referred to as microscopic, single-celled organisms which exist in their millions, in every environment, both inside and outside other organisms.

In 1676, a Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first observed a bacterial cell by using a single-lens microscope of his own design.

In 1828, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg first introduced the term “bacterium”

Virus

Virus is a microscopic, infectious particle that can reproduce or replicate within the living cell of an organism or host. Viruses can not reproduce without a host cell. They infect almost all living forms such as animals, plants, and bacteria.

In 1898, a Dutch scientist, Martinus Beijerinck discovered the world’s first virus which was the tobacco mosaic virus. He conducted an experiment to show that there is another infectious particle that is smaller than bacteria and responsible for the infection in tobacco plants.

Difference Between Bacteria and Virus

Topic	Bacteria	Virus
Definition	Bacteria is a types of cell that constitute a large domain of prokaryotic cell.	Virus is a small infectious organism that replicate only within the cell of other organisms.
Size	Bacteria are larger than virus (0.3 – 3u)	Viruses are smaller than bacteria (0.02 – 0.3u)
No. of cell	Bacteria are unicellular	They don’t considered as a cell so they are neither unicellular nor multicellular.
Reproduction Methods	Bacteria reproduce by binary fission.	Invades the host cell and takes over the cell causing it to make copies of the viral DNA/RNA. Destroying the host cell releasing new viruses.
Ribosome	Present	absent
Nucleic acid	DNA and RNA present floating in cytoplasm	DNA or RNA enclosed in a coat of protein.
Cell Wall	peptidoglycan or lipopolysaccharide	No cell wall. protein coat is present instead.
Living/Non-living	Living organism	Between living and non-living things.
Infection	Localized	Systemic
Reproduce	Able to reproduce by itself	Need a living cell to reproduce.
Susceptibility to drugs	Most of them can be killed or inhibited by antobiotics.	Cannot be killed by the antibiotics Some can be inhibited by the antiviral drugs.
Living Conditions	Most of them can survive and reproduce outside the host.	Need host cell to reproduce and survive.
Enzymes	Present	Present in some.
Microscope	Visible under light microscope.	need electron microscope to visualize.
Genetic Material	A single, circular chromosome is present.	DNA/RNA strand is present.
Cellular Machinery	Bacteria possess a cellular machinery.	Virus lack cellular machinery.
Metabolism	Bacteria show metabolism within the cell.	There is no metabolism inside the viral particle.
Benefits	Bacteria can be either beneficial or harmful.	Viruses are usually harmful, can be useful in genetic engineering.
Duration of Illness	Diseases caused by bacteria last longer than 10 days.	Diseases caused by viruses last 2 to 10 days.
Fever	Bacteria cause fever.	Viruses may or may not cause fever.
Diseases/ Infections	Food poisoning, gastritis, ulcers, meningitis, pneumonia, etc. are caused by bacteria.	AIDS, common cold, influenza, chickenpox, etc. are caused by viruses.
Examples	Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholera, etc. are examples of bacteria.	HIV, Hepatitis A virus, Rhino Virus, etc. are examples of viruses.