Flexi Says: Viruses are not made up of cells, so they do not have a cell membrane or any cytoplasm, ribosomes, or other organelles, nor do they have their own metabolism. The viral DNA (or sometimes RNA) encodes for proteins that make the capsid. However, viruses cannot make their own proteins; they use the ribosomes of a host cell to make proteins. A host cell is a cell infected by a virus.
