Concept:Antibiotics target specific metabolic pathways or structures (like cell walls) found in bacteria, but viruses lack these due to their acellular nature and dependence on host cells for replication.
Explanation:Viruses are acellular particles; outside a host they are inert, with no protoplasm or metabolic machinery.
Antibiotics act on bacterial processes such as cell wall synthesis, protein synthesis, or DNA replication – these pathways are absent in viruses.
Viruses do not have cell walls; they are enclosed by a protein coat (capsid) and rely entirely on the host cell's machinery to reproduce.
Inside a host cell, the virus hijacks the host's metabolic pathways, but antibiotics cannot distinguish viral processes from host processes without causing toxicity.
Therefore, antibiotics are ineffective against viral infections, unlike bacterial infections where specific targets exist.
Option C correctly states that viruses lack the metabolic pathways on which antibiotics can act, whereas bacteria possess such pathways.
Answer:Option C: Viruses do not possess metabolic pathways on which antibiotics can function, whereas bacteria have such pathways.