Very Useful RNA Virus Mnemonic

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Wow, does that actually help anybody? It seems like one of those mnemonics that's just as hard to memorize as the material itself.

I keep the RNA viruses straight by memorizing:

1. the -myxoviruses, rabies virus, and the wierd viruses that aren't likely to be tested (arena, bunya, filo, etc) are - sense and enveloped.
2. Remember one, the other one's the other one (i.e. all the other ones are + sense.) Now, you just have to take care of the envelopes:
2b. HIV is enveloped (otherwise I wouldn't have to remember all the envelope glycoproteins 🙂)
2c. All the MMR vaccine viruses (incl. Rubella = Togavirus) are enveloped
2d. So are flaviviruses

I highly doubt they will ask about icosahedral vs. helical. If they do, I'll just make an educated guess and move on with life.....

Hopefully either my way or the OP is useful to somebody 🙂
 

This is actually pretty helpful!! I'm a very visual learner, and having 'read the story' once, I can describe the virus structures just by going over the story in my head 🙂 🙂 I always get very frustrated with questions that describe a viral disease and I know what it is, but then they ask a question related to its structure -- this should definitely help. Thanks for sharing!

Wow, does that actually help anybody? It seems like one of those mnemonics that's just as hard to memorize as the material itself.

I keep the RNA viruses straight by memorizing:

1. the -myxoviruses, rabies virus, and the wierd viruses that aren't likely to be tested (arena, bunya, filo, etc) are - sense and enveloped.
2. Remember one, the other one's the other one (i.e. all the other ones are + sense.) Now, you just have to take care of the envelopes:
2b. HIV is enveloped (otherwise I wouldn't have to remember all the envelope glycoproteins 🙂)
2c. All the MMR vaccine viruses (incl. Rubella = Togavirus) are enveloped
2d. So are flaviviruses

I highly doubt they will ask about icosahedral vs. helical. If they do, I'll just make an educated guess and move on with life.....

Hopefully either my way or the OP is useful to somebody 🙂

I also do the whole 'remember one, the other one's the other one' thing a lot, but like I said above, the viral stuff has annoyed me for a long time. Hopefully not anymore 👍
 
I found this diagram very useful. The quick little story and the visual images made it much easier to memorize than tables of text. Worked great for me on practice questions, but unfortunately I didn't have the chance to use it on the real exam. I know it appears complicated, I certainly thought so when I first looked at it, but the imagery will stay with you longer than text will.
 
Update: I actually went over this chart while studying Micro from FA and this is probably the most helpful mnemonic device that I've ever used, especially for a topic I absolutely dread 🙂 I read the pictures a couple of times, and tested myself using those huge virus charts in FA as well as the virus descriptions, and it took seconds to recall 😀

So thanks A LOT for sharing this 👍
 
wow this is madd good. thanks a lot man.

is there any other stories like this that make other really complex stuff from FA easy (especially the Helminth chart)?
 
Last edited:
Top