Having recently recovered from the flu, I happened to stumble across this article in Discover magazine that shows new evidence for viruses in the pecking order of biogenesis. What has always fascinated me about viruses is the difficulty in classifying them as alive or not. Like most living organisms, a virus has the ability to reproduce, albeit in a much different way than other cellular entities. Basically, viruses replicate themselves by inserting their DNA into the nucleus of living cells, taking over the cellular functions to reproduce itself. It stands to reason that if viruses are dependent on living cells to replicate, then they must have evolved after single celled organisms. This article sheds light on how viruses may have been more influential on primordial bacteria to form the “mother cell” of all subsequently derived life on Earth.
A monstrous discovery suggests that viruses, long regarded as lowly evolutionary latecomers, may have been the precursors of all life on Earth.
