Viruses and the tree of life
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Viruses and the tree of life
Although most biologists would argue that viruses are not alive, some argue that viruses should be included in the tree of life. All organisms, they contend, should be divided into ribosome-encoding organisms (REOs) and capsid-encoding organisms (CEOs). Bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes are REOs; viruses are CEOs.
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Mimivirus is the largest and most complex virus known. Is it an evolutionary bridge between nonliving viruses and living organisms, or is it just an anomaly?
How did viruses evolve? Are they a streamlined form of something that existed long ago, or an ultimate culmination of smaller genetic elements joined together?
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