For the past few years, we have and still is, experiencing a pandemic that is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Understanding viruses can be daunting but in these times, it’s better to have an understanding of how viruses work than not know anything.
Viruses are biological entities that are considered to be neither inanimate nor living matter. They have RNA or DNA-base genomes with single and double-stranded nucleic acids but do not have working translation systems that are needed for protein synthesis, ribosomes, and their own metabolism. They require a host to replicated and spread as virions. In simple terms, viruses are microscopic parasites that need a host body to thrive and reproduce which causes a widespread of diseases. They’re believed to have played an important role in the evolution of cellular organisms and aren’t considered alive because they lack the ability to self-replicate and their extracellular virions are in a dormant state. However, many scientists have said that the status of whether viruses are alive or not is based on your definition of life.
During the replication process of viruses in the host body, they can evolve if a mutation occurs during that process. Many theories have been proposed that explains the origins of viruses, one is that they predated cells and contributed to the rise of cellular life, the second is that they are reduced forms of parasitic organisms while a third theory is that they were once part of the genetic material of host cells but escaped the cell control and evolved by stealing genes through horizontal gene transfer.
I’ve only covered a very small portion on viruses because this topic is complex to understand. Since it’s hard for even a biology student to understand, telling the public about it would cause even more confusion, thus it’s better to only provide the general public background knowledge on what viruses are, how they function along with how they evolve. The public only really needs to know the simplified important information because not everyone is a scientist or has the background knowledge scientists were taught. In conclusion, we do not know if viruses are inanimate or alive, it is based on what your definition of life is.
References:
Forterre P. (2010). Defining life: the virus viewpoint. Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, 40(2), 151–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-010-9194-1
Koonin, E. V., & Starokadomskyy, P. (2016). Are viruses alive? The replicator paradigm sheds decisive light on an old but misguided question. Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, 59, 125–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.02.016
Nasir, A., Kim, K. M., & Caetano-Anollés, G. (2012). Viral evolution: Primordial cellular origins and late adaptation to parasitism. Mobile genetic elements, 2(5), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.4161/mge.22797
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 