Viruses remain somewhat of an enigma to scientists. They are still debating whether or not viruses should even be considered living or not with good arguments on both sides. What are viruses anyway? To put it simply, they are a collection of DNA or RNA enclosed in a protein coat. They are very simple genetically with the Sars-COV-2 virus only having around 15 genomes compared to a bacterium with 7500 genomes. The number of genomes is not everything though, as tomatoes have 30,000 which is about 10,000 more than a human, however, there is a limit to this as the amount of information that can be stored will be limited by the number of genomes you have. Viruses also lack the ability to reproduce by themselves so it infects other organisms to essentially hijack bodily functions for their own uses. It is for these reasons that I don’t see viruses as living things and consider them more akin to rogue DNA and RNA information that can’t help but behave this way. However, this discussion about viruses has been recently reignited with the discovery of mega viruses in 2003. These viruses are much larger and more complex than normal viruses. For example, a mega virus will typically have thousands of genomes and what is even stranger is that many of these genomes contain information for regular bodily function, things that a living thing would have. Research into mega viruses is still new and I’m excited to see what people find out.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 