Viruses are Not Living Organisms
What is an organism? What is a virus? Are viruses living organisms? These questions ponder the minds of students, teachers, and scientists.
There is a big discussion on viruses being alive or not. Viruses are not alive and shouldn’t have the right to be considered living organisms because viruses are noncellular and do not respond to stimuli, can’t reproduce on their own, and do not carry both DNA and RNA as living organisms do.
In a living organism there are cellular organisms, some are single celled and some are multicellular. Viruses are noncellular, parasitic
agent consisting of an outer capsid and an inner core of nucleic acid (Mader, Windelspecht 2012). Viruses do not respond to stimuli.
This means they are not able to react like other living organisms can.
There is a big debate on the reproduction of viruses. Viruses do not and can’t reproduce on their own where as living organisms do.
Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites because they can produce only inside a living cell (Mader, Windelspecht 2012). They
have to be adhered in a lock and key manner to a specific molecule in order to start to reproduce (Mader, Windelspecht 2012). Because they are not able to reproduce on their own as living organisms can, I believe that they are not alive. Living organisms are able to reproduce
on their own without attaching.
Viruses are very unconventional. Many viruses use mostly RNA or DNA but never both. DNA and RNA together are two nucleic acids found in every living organism. DNA is found in almost all organisms and is used to store genetic information. RNA is the main genetic material used in viruses (Carpi, Vision Learning). Once a virus attaches to a host DNA is able to be used. This shows that since living organisms have DNA and RNA to begin with,
viruses are not alive because they need to attach to something in order to receive the DNA that they already carry. This is like a toy for instance.
The toy is not going to work unless batteries are attached to it.
As you can see, viruses are not living organisms and should not be considered living. They do not respond to stimuli and are noncellular, they can’t reproduce on their own, and they do not carry both DNA and RNA. These are a few characteristics to ponder when you think about what
viruses are and if they should be considered living organisms.
References:
Mader SS, Windelspecht M. 2012. Essentials of Biology. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Judson. 2009 December 15. A Gazillion Tiny Avatars. New York Times.
Racaniello. 2009 March 19. Viruses and the Tree of Life.
Oracle -Think Quest Educational Foundation. Accessed on 2011 September 5. Available from: http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0212089/virus.htm
Carpi A. Nucleic Acids. Vision Learning. Accessed on 2011 September 6. Available from: http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=63
Merriam-Webster. 2007. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus. United States of America: Merriam-Webster Incorporated