Month: September 2022

RNA FIRST VIEW. “The pre-cellular RNA world must have been dominated by quasi-species consortia-based evolution, as are current RNA viruses.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

DRAMATIC CAPABILITY. “Viruses can parasitize almost any replication system - even prebiotic ones.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT BEINGS. “Since viruses with RNA genomes are the only living beings that use RNA as a storage medium, they are considered to be witnesses of an earlier RNA world.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

SINGULAR BEINGS. “Current negatively stranded RNA viruses have genome structures and replication patterns that are dissimilar to all known cell types. No similarity between RNA-viral replicases and those of any known cell types has been identified.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

OTHER FAMILY RESEMBLANCES. “DNA viruses, too, do not give any reference to a cellular origin. DNA-repair proteins of DNA viruses do not have any counterparts in cells.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL CHUNKING. “A prophage can provide the acquisition of > 100 new genes in a single genome editing event.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

VIRAL DRIVERS. “Today, it is assumed that the gene word order in bacterial genomes is determined by viral settlers of bacterial host genomes. Not only bacterial life is determined by non-lytic viral settlements, but also the evolution of eukaryotes has strongly depended on viral properties.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

THE NUCLEUS. “In contrast to mitochondria and other eukaryotic parts of bacterial descent, the eukaryotic nucleus was formerly a large double-stranded DNA virus. All properties of the eukaryotic nucleus are lacking in bacterial life forms but are typical features of DNA viruses.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

SELF-HEALING VIRUSES. “Even lethally irradiated viruses can often repair themselves...viruses are the only living agents capable of meaningfully recombining text fragments of a damaged genome into a fully functional viral genome that is capable of self-replication.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn

GENOME ECOLOGY. “The most dominant viral life strategy is the non-lytic but persistent viral settlement of cytoplasm of cellular hosts and even more of cellular host genomes.” https://lnkd.in/e3YfQQZ View in LinkedIn