What is the Difference Between Ecotropic Amphotropic and Pantropic Virus

The key difference between ecotropic amphotropic and pantropic virus is that ecotropic viruses infect mouse or rat cells while amphotropic viruses infect mammalian cells and pantropic viruses infect all kinds of cells.

Viruses are intracellular obligate parasites. They need a host organism to replicate their genome and make their progenies. Viruses show host specificity. Based on the type of living cells they infect, there are three groups of viruses as ecotropic, amphotropic, and pantropic viruses. Ectopic viruses infect mouse cells. They do not infect human cells. Hence, they are safer to work with. Amphotropic viruses infect mammalian cells. Pantropic viruses infect all kinds of cells. Hence, both amphotropic and pantropic viruses can infect human cells.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Ecotropic Virus
3. What is Amphotropic Virus
4. What is Pantropic Virus
5. Similarities – Ecotropic Amphotropic and Pantropic Virus
6. Ecotropic vs Amphotropic vs Pantropic Virus in Tabular Form
7. Summary – Ecotropic vs Amphotropic vs Pantropic Virus

What is Ecotropic Virus?

Ecotropic viruses are viruses that can only infect rat or mouse cells. They infect only murine cells. Generally, a virus recognizes the specific receptor on its host cells. Therefore, ecotropic viruses are able to recognize a receptor located only on mouse and rat cells. They do not infect human cells. Therefore, ecotropic viruses are safer to work with, unlike amphotropic and pantropic viruses.

Ecotropic viruses are less stable and cannot handle ultracentrifugation as well as a freeze/thaw cycle. This is why ultracentrifugation should not be used when harvesting ecotropic viruses in the lab.

What is Amphotropic Virus?

Amphotropic virus is a type of virus that can infect only mammalian cells. This virus recognizes receptors on mammalian cells and attaches to them. Then they insert their nucleic acids into a mammalian cell and replicate inside. Generally, a wide range of mammalian cells is susceptible to amphotropic viral infections. These viruses are pathogenic viruses since they can infect human cells as well. Therefore, amphotropic viruses should be handled carefully. Similar to ecotropic viruses, amphotropic viruses are pH-independent in infection. Moreover, amphotropic viruses belong to a subgroup of murine leukemia virus (MuLV).

What is Pantropic Virus?

Pantropic viruses are a group of viruses that can infect all most all kinds of living cells. Therefore, they infect all types of mammalian cells and some types of non-mammalian cells. They are stable viruses than ecotropic and amphotropic viruses. Furthermore, they are virulent than other viruses. They infect human cells, causing diseases. Therefore, special care should be taken when working with pantropic viruses.

What are the Similarities Between Ecotropic Amphotropic and Pantropic Virus?

  • Ecotropic, amphotropic, and pantropic viruses are intracellular parasites.
  • They infect living cells.
  • They are composed of a protein capsid and nucleic acid genome.
  • They cause damage to their host organism.
  • They are smaller than bacteria.

What is the Difference Between Ecotropic Amphotropic and Pantropic Virus?

Ecotrpic virus is a virus that infects only mouse or rat cells while amphotropic virus is a virus that infects a broad range of mammalian cells and pantropic virus is a type of virus that infect all most all types of cells. So, this is the key difference between ecotropic amphotropic and pantropic virus. Moreover, the ecotropic viruses do not infect human cells, so they are safer to work with while both amphotropic and pantropic viruses infect human cells. Therefore, special care should be taken when working with both amphotropic and pantropic viruses.

The following infographic lists the differences between ecotropic amphotropic and pantropic virus in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – Ecotropic vs Amphotropic vs Pantropic Virus

Ecotropic viruses infect mouse or rat cells. Amphotropic viruses infect a broad range of mammalin cells. Pantropic viruses infect all types of mammalian cells and some other types of non-mammalian cells. Both amphotropic and pantropic viruses are pathogenic, while ecotropic viruses do not infect human cells. Thus, this is the summary of the difference between ecotropic amphotropic and pantropic virus.