There is a big common question that the public never really knows the answer to and that is – are viruses alive? The answer to that question is kind of. I know it’s shocking. How can a virus be kind of alive? There has been an ongoing debate between scientists for many years as to whether classify viruses as alive or dead. There is a large grey area of being alive or not. Pretty much, viruses cannot do anything unless they come in contact with a host cell. They do not have their own nucleus and they cannot make their own energy. Viruses have one goal and that is to insert their DNA or RNA into the host cell so that it can be replicated. Then, the DNA that was inserted will be post-transcriptionally modified, packed into new virus cells, and released from the host cell. Viruses are able to survive by injecting their DNA into host cells and replicating from there. So, they depend on host cells to survive. Without host cells, they are not able to replicate and will not be able to survive in their environment. Therefore, viruses have characteristics of being alive and not alive. They have the ability to reproduce inside host cells but don’t really have a proper cellular structure. This is why is it extremely hard to classify if viruses are alive or not. It wouldn’t really make sense to fully classify viruses as dead as they can move throughout the cell and have a purpose. This is an extremely complicated topic to teach to the public as there are tons of research and information to be learned and understood. But, I do believe it is important to understand the basics of the topic and its physiology and mechanism of replication.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 