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NUCLEAR VIROGENESIS. “I personally find the general idea that a nucleus is functionally equivalent to a selfish DNA virus (that is, replicating 'its' DNA using the cellular metabolism) simple and very appealing - and even more so when one realizes that the idea can be turned on its head to envisage the nucleus of a (primitive) eukaryote (re-)turning into a large DNA virus - the notion of nuclear viriogenesis.” https://lnkd.in/eyzfrxe View in LinkedIn

DIVERSE REPRODUCTION. “Viruses are also more diverse when it comes to reproduction. "Cells only have two main ways of replicating their DNA," said Patrick Forterre, a virologist at Paris-Sud University. "One is found in bacteria, the other in Archaea and eukaryotes." Viruses, on the other hand, have many more methods at their disposal.” https://lnkd.in/eXmJ-Tt View in LinkedIn

DIVERSITY PATTERNS. “According to this perspective, if viruses developed from cells, they should be less diverse because cells would contain the entire range of genes available to viruses. It's a recurring theme in evolutionary biology: One of the reasons we know humans originated in Africa is that genetic diversity among residents of that continent is much greater than it is anywhere else. If this pattern of diversity is true for humans…there's no reason it can't also be true for viruses.” https://lnkd.in/eXmJ-Tt View in LinkedIn

VIRAL WORLD AND DIVERSITY. “Supporters point to a few lines of evidence. First, the diversity of viruses far exceeds that found in cellular life. "Where diversity lies, origin lies.” https://lnkd.in/eXmJ-Tt View in LinkedIn

RNA WORLD. “The Virus World Theory is closely related to the RNA World Theory, which says life first evolved as small pieces of RNA that slowly developed into complex DNA-carrying organisms. The Virus World Theory agrees that life's genetic material began as RNA. But it differs by arguing that the ancestors of viruses evolved before cells.” https://lnkd.in/eXmJ-Tt View in LinkedIn

STREAMLINING AND OURSOURCING. “Over time, Koonin argues, the parasitic genetic elements remained unable to replicate on their own and evolved into modern-day viruses that mooch off their cellular hosts. The genes they parasitized began to evolve different types of genetic information and other barriers to protect themselves from the genetic freeloaders, which ultimately evolved into cells.” https://lnkd.in/eXmJ-Tt View in LinkedIn

PURIFYING SELECTION. "In plants, however, few deleterious changes may occur in Y-linked alleles, because a high proportion of genes are expressed in the haploid pollen, and, if these genes have important functions during pollination, they may experience strong purifying selection against sequence changes that impair their functions." https://lnkd.in/exrSaeb View in LinkedIn

EXTREME DIVERSITY. “Viruses are the most diverse entities on our planet.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

SMALL POPULATION AND MUTATIONS. "The reduced effective population size allows deleterious mutations in functional sequences to increase in frequency in the population, or become fixed, causing deterioration of the sequences." https://lnkd.in/exrSaeb View in LinkedIn

THE KING. “It is the virus that is king of the jungle.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn