Viruses as prey?

[Peter Charles]

I think that Ian was pointing out that some of the defective viruses
are essentially parasites of their respective helper viruses.  This is most
extreme in the case of hep. delta, where the delta virus requires HBV
for both replication of its genome, and as a source for its capsid (HBSag).
In this way the defective viruses are "preying" on the helper virus.  

Peter Charles, Ph.D.
Department of Pathology (Neuropathology)
Albert Einstein College of Medicine