Re: News: 'Virophage' suggests viruses are alive
- From: henisdov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:49:44 -0400 (EDT)
On 7 ×?×?×?×?ס×?, 18:30, "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rston...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Published online 6 August 2008 | Nature 454, 677 (2008) |
doi:10.1038/454677a
'Virophage' suggests viruses are alive
Evidence of illness enhances case for life.
Helen Pearson
The discovery of a giant virus that falls ill through infection by another
virus1 is fuelling the debate about whether viruses are alive.
"There's no doubt this is a living organism," says Jean-Michel Claverie, a
virologist at the the CNRS UPR laboratories in Marseilles, part of France's
basic-research agency. "The fact that it can get sick makes it more alive."
Giant viruses have been captivating virologists since 2003, when a team led
by Claverie and Didier Raoult at CNRS UMR, also in Marseilles, reported the
discovery of the first monster2. The virus had been isolated more than a
decade earlier in amoebae from a cooling tower in Bradford, UK, but was
initially mistaken for a bacterium because of its size, and was relegated to
the freezer.
Closer inspection showed the microbe to be a huge virus with, as later work
revealed, a genome harbouring more than 900 protein-coding genes3 - at least
three times more than that of the biggest previously known viruses and
bigger than that of some bacteria. It was named Acanthamoeba polyphaga
mimivirus (for mimicking microbe), and is thought to be part of a much
larger family. "It was the cause of great excitement in virology," says
Eugene Koonin at the National Center for Biotechnology Information in
Bethesda, Maryland. "It crossed the imaginary boundary between viruses and
cellular organisms."...
Source: Naturehttp://www.nature.com/news/2008/080806/full/454677a.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Are Viruses "Alive"?
alive = organism:
arth's organisms: temporary self-replicable constrained-energy genetic
systems that support and maintain Earth's biosphere by maintenance of
genes.
Every "self-replicable" genetic system has a unique package of
essentials for replication...and viruses are not different in this
respect than other organisms.
Dov Henis
PS: 21st Century Life Comprehension
1. Definitions Of Earth Life, Organism, Gene, Genome And Cellular
Organisms.
Earth Life: 1. a format of temporarily constrained energy, retained in
temporary constrained genetic energy packages in forms of genes,
genomes and organisms 2. a real virtual affair that pops in and out of
existence in its matrix, which is the energy constrained in Earth's
biosphere.
Earth organism: a temporary self-replicable constrained-energy genetic
system that supports and maintains Earth's biosphere by maintenance of
genes.
Gene: a primal Earth's organism.
Genome: a multigenes organism consisting of a cooperative commune of
its member genes.
Cellular organisms: mono- or multi-celled earth organisms.
2. Update of life sciences conceptions is now feasible and urgently
desirable
- Earth's biosphere phenomenon is a distant relative of black holes, a
form of constrained
energy pocket.
- First were independent individual genes, Earth's primal organisms.
- Genes aggregated cooperatively into genomes, multigenes organisms,
with genomes' organs.
- Simultaneously or consequently genomes evolved protective and
functional membranes, organs.
- Then followed cellular organisms, with a variety of outer-cell
membranes shapes and
functionalities.
3. Nature, Origin, Function And Purpose Of Life
Nature of Earth life: a replicating construction temporarily
constraining and maintaining energy.
Origin of Earth life: serendipitous energy-induced formation of
Earth's primal organisms, individual independent genes.
Nature of Earth's organisms: temporary self-replicable constrained-
energy genetic systems that support and maintain Earth's biosphere by
maintenance of genes.
Function of Earth life: uphold and maintain as much constrained energy
as possible by upholding and maintaining Earth's biosphere.
The purpose of OUR life and its promotion is ours to choose and set.
It derives solely from our cognition.
Dov Henis
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-P81pQcU1dLBbHgtjQjxG_Q--?cq=1
.
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