Editing Life (section)

=== Viruses ===

{{main|Virus}}

[[File:Adenovirus transmission electron micrograph B82-0142 lores.jpg|thumb|right|[[Adenovirus]]es as seen under an electron microscope]]

Whether or not viruses should be considered as alive is controversial.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Virus |url=https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Virus |access-date=25 July 2022 |website=Genome.gov |archive-date=11 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511064713/https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Virus |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Are Viruses Alive? |url=https://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/yellowstone/viruslive.html |access-date=25 July 2022 |website=Yellowstone Thermal Viruses |archive-date=14 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614031640/https://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/yellowstone/viruslive.html |url-status=live }}</ref> They are most often considered as just [[gene coding]] [[DNA replication|replicators]] rather than forms of life.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Are viruses alive? The replicator paradigm sheds decisive light on an old but misguided question |journal=Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biology and Biomedical Science |volume=59 |pages=125–134 |date=7 March 2016 |last1=Koonin |first1=E.V. |last2=Starokadomskyy |first2=P. |doi=10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.02.016 |pmid=26965225 |pmc=5406846}}</ref> They have been described as "organisms at the edge of life"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rybicki |first=EP |year=1990 |url=https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA00382353_6229 |title=The classification of organisms at the edge of life, or problems with virus systematics |journal=S Afr J Sci |volume=86 |pages=182–186 |access-date=5 November 2023 |archive-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921114412/https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA00382353_6229 |url-status=live }}</ref> because they possess [[gene]]s, evolve by natural selection,<ref name="pmid17914905">{{Cite journal |last1=Holmes |first1=E.C. |title=Viral evolution in the genomic age |journal=PLOS Biol. |volume=5 |issue=10 |page=e278 |date=October 2007 |pmid=17914905 |pmc=1994994 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050278 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Forterre 2010">{{cite journal |title=Defining Life: The Virus Viewpoint |journal=Orig Life Evol Biosph |date=3 March 2010 |first=Patrick |last=Forterre |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=151–160 |doi=10.1007/s11084-010-9194-1 |bibcode=2010OLEB...40..151F |pmc=2837877 |pmid=20198436}}</ref> and replicate by making multiple copies of themselves through self-assembly. However, viruses do not metabolise and they require a host cell to make new products. Virus self-assembly within host cells has implications for the study of the [[origin of life]], as it may support the hypothesis that life could have started as self-assembling [[organic molecules]].<ref name="pmid16984643">{{Cite journal |last1=Koonin |first1=E.V. |author1-link=Eugene Koonin |last2=Senkevich |first2=T.G. |last3=Dolja |first3=V.V. |title=The ancient Virus World and evolution of cells |journal=Biology Direct |volume=1 |page=29 |year=2006 |pmid=16984643 |pmc=1594570 |doi=10.1186/1745-6150-1-29 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/tutorial/virorig.html#Virus%20Origins |title=Origins of Viruses |last=Rybicki |first=Ed |date=November 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090509094459/http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/tutorial/virorig.html|archive-date=9 May 2009 |url-status=dead |access-date=12 April 2009}}</ref>

An alternative view on this topic is the possibility that we have overlooked the true nature of viruses.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baˆndea |first=Claudiu I. |date=December 1983 |title=A new theory on the origin and the nature of viruses |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0022519383902217 |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |language=en |volume=105 |issue=4 |pages=591–602 |doi=10.1016/0022-5193(83)90221-7 |pmid=6672474 |bibcode=1983JThBi.105..591B |archive-date=3 June 2024 |access-date=8 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240603215702/https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0022519383902217 |url-status=live }}</ref> In accordance to this view, a virion is a mare [[spore]] where an ontologically mature virus is created by the act of a cell [[infection]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Forterre |first=Patrick |date=April 2010 |title=Defining Life: The Virus Viewpoint |journal=Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres |language=en |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=151–160 |doi=10.1007/s11084-010-9194-1 |issn=0169-6149 |pmc=2837877 |pmid=20198436|bibcode=2010OLEB...40..151F }}</ref> Created this way, "virocell"—a cellular [[organism]] of virus—is supposed to be its true form which holds all features of living beings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Piast |first=Radosław W. |date=June 2019 |title=Shannon's information, Bernal's biopoiesis and Bernoulli distribution as pillars for building a definition of life |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0022519319301109 |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |language=en |volume=470 |pages=101–107 |doi=10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.03.009 |pmid=30876803 |bibcode=2019JThBi.470..101P |archive-date=15 December 2019 |access-date=1 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215051539/https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0022519319301109 |url-status=live }}</ref>