Do Viruses Violate Life

Viruses straddle the definition of life.Life is defined as the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.A virus is a microorganism that is smaller than a bacterium that cannot grow or reproduce apart from a living cell. A virus invades living cells and uses their chemical machinery to keep itself alive and to replicate itself. Viruses exist in two distinct states. When not in contact with a host cell, the virus remains entirely dormant. In this simple, clearly non-living state viruses are referred to as 'virions'. Virions can remain in this dormant state for extended periods of time, waiting patiently to come

It now displays properties typified by living organisms, such as reacting to its environment and directing its efforts toward self-replication.In general, viruses are entirely composed of a single strand of genetic information encased within a protein capsule. Viruses lack most of the internal structure and machinery which characterize 'life', including the biosynthetic machinery that is necessary for reproduction. In order for a virus to replicate it must infect a suitable host cell.Once inside the cell, the genetic material is released, which then makes the cell into a virus producing machine, abandoning its original function and using its resources to create as many viruses as possible before the cell dies. The new viruses then move on to repeat the process on other nearby cells. From this description of the viral reproduction process, we see that viruses have something that would strongly move its status towards

When we take into consideration the 6 other characteristics of life we could see that viruses could seem to be alive.In terms of growth-single cell organisms can have difficulty truly fulfilling this, viruses do replicate their DNA and also encode for the formation of the multiple proteins needed for the virus so in a sense it could be said to utilize materials from the environment in order to grow as a population, all be it while needing a host to do so. However, a virus is able to mass produce itself and grow its population.Have a cell-Well the virus can be seen to maintain a decent portion of its life within its own coded for protein coat, an organized capsule that holds the genetic information needed for the virus itself to infect another cell and thrive. Having some way to pass on hereditary information-While most life forms utilize DNA, RNA could very well be seen as a medium for holding heriditary information just not as stable. It may have even served as a form of information storage in the past, even proteins may have. In any case here are viruses that have DNA storage as well. Requires energy/has metabolism-while the virus particle itself has no metabolism in its capsule, one could simply say it is dormant. The virus certainly requires an energy source, and hence a metabolism, in order to reproduce. The virus infects the metabolism of the cell.React to