Are viruses living beings?

Currently and scientifically speaking, Viruses are not considered living beingsbut are constituted as molecular and protein aggregates lacking their own life.

Why are viruses not living beings

• Among the main reasons why they cannot be considered beings alive, highlights its inability to live and reproduce freelythat is, they always need another organism (unicellular or multicellular), which they infect in order to survive and reproduce their genetic material.
• Viruses do not have cellsso they have no fabrics, organs or any type of enzymatic machinery that allows them to fulfill their reproductive function, so they are considered Mandatory intracellular parasites that need the cellular resources of living beings who infect in order to survive, being able to be both bacteria and other microorganisms as animals, plants and human beings.
• It is easy not to group them within living beings because They lack vital functions That beings develop alive, such as food, breathing, communication with the environment, energy collection and reproduction with exchange of genetic material.

This last function is probably the most curious and surprising within the world of viruses, so in the next section we will see in detail how viruses and the main characteristics of this process are reproduced.

The propagation or reproduction of viruses It is based on processes of constant replica of your genetic materialmaking use of this genome of a living beingwhich serves as a mold to which they incorporate their own genetic information.

It is a much simpler process than living beings to reproduce, since in the case of viruses, they simply Inject your genetic information within DNA and associated enzymatic machinery of the guest organism to which they have infected, with the consequent creation of new replicas of viruses, completely identical to the original.

When reproducing, viruses can follow two types of reproductive cycles, according to the lysis or death of the cell that infect or not. Thus, these are the two Types of virus reproduction:

Logic cycle of viruses

It entails the lysis and death of the host cell. The viruses, after using the cell enzymatic machinery to reproduce or spread and create new identical viruses, end up lying the cell with the consequent release of the new viruses and the rapid spread of them, with the aim of infecting new cells and continuing their multiplication.

Lisogenic cycle

In this case, viruses do not break the host cell at first, but use the enzymatic machinery of the cells they infect to ensure their own growth and duplication of genetic material. Once they consider their development sufficient, they reverse a lithic cycle, with the consequent death of the host cell and release of the new viruses, thus continuing, with their parasitic or infectious activity.

Thanks to The virologyscience in charge of Virus studythere is more and more information related to the structure and mechanisms of infection of the complexes and microscopic viruses. In this way, at the time of classify virusesthese are included within different taxonomic families, following classifications that serve different parameters, such as:

Classification of viruses according to their genetic material

• Adenovirus (DNA)
• Reovirus (RNA)
• Retrovirus (RNA)
• Paramixovirus (RNA)

Classification of viruses according to their forms and structures

• Coronavirus
• Ortomixovirus
• Picornavirus

Classification of viruses according to organisms that infect

• Bacteria virus: bacteriophages T-PAR
• Plant virus: tobacco mosaic virus
• Animal virus: herpesvirus, parvovirus, poxvirus

We recommend you learn more about them and other infectious or parasitic organisms with this other ecology article about biological pollution: what is, types and examples.

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