Viruses as prey?

[Steven Poet]

This sounds more like a parasitic relationship to me. Predator-prey
relationships imply one organism consuming another for energy.  Does
the satellite virus prevent the replication of HBV?  If not, the 
satellite is using resources of HBV without preventing HBV from
replicating.  That's parasitism. 

Peter Charles <pcharles at aecom.yu.edu> wrote:
>
> 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