A Biological Exploration: Are Viruses Truly Living Organisms?

This essay delves into the multifaceted nature of viruses, examining their characteristics and the ongoing debate regarding their classification as living or non-living organisms. The essay begins with a definition of viruses and explores the characteristics of life, such as the ability to replicate, grow, and possess genetic material. It then provides a detailed analysis of viruses, their structure, and their dependence on host cells for replication. The essay highlights the arguments supporting both viewpoints, considering that viruses exhibit some properties of living organisms (genetic material, potential to replicate) while lacking others (cellular structure, independent metabolism). The essay concludes by emphasizing the unique and complex nature of viruses, suggesting that alternative classification methods might be necessary to fully understand their place in the biological world. The essay also references key scientific literature to support its claims.

PART A
ESSAY PLAN
The viruses are considered as a unique organisms exhibiting the characteristics of living as
well as non-living organisms. Therefore, there are a lot of researches and debates going on
this topic. The essay aims to present a brief on the viruses and various aspects placing them
in both the living and non-living organisms’ category.
 Intro: Presents the definition and meaning of the word virus.
 Para 1: The characteristics of life representing the various characteristics being exhibited
by the living organisms
 Para 2: The viruses have been explained further thoroughly and further information has
been added.
 Para 3: The characteristics exhibited by the viruses making scientist believe that viruses
are non-living things
 Para 4: Presents all the other factors debating on the existence of viruses as a living
organisms.
 Conclusion: Sums up the whole study


PART B.
Virus- Why are they unique?
 Introduction
The word “virus” is derived from a Latin word for “poison”. The initial interest was stemmed
from its association with various diseases like rabies, foot-and-mouth etc. (Villarreal, L, 2004)
 Discussion
The characteristics of Life:
 The living organisms are composed of cells.
 The living organisms require energy for carrying out metabolic activities which produces
molecules that help the organization to sustain.
 The living organisms have ability to replicate on their own and can also perform the same
function on a truly living organism affecting their host cells in the most profound manner.
 The living organisms have ability to grow.
 The Living organisms have a collection of integrated organs, for example in multicellular
organisms, various organs are present whereas unicellular organisms are composed of
several structures or molecular machines. (Villarreal, L, 2004)
 The living organisms have genetic material stored in their cells.
Viruses:
 The parasites skirting a boundary between life and the inert matter are termed as viruses.
Virus is composed of the same nucleic acid molecules and proteins as other living cells

but lack the ability of replicating and spreading on their own. This assistance is provided
to them via a host cell.
 On replicating the viruses produce new genes. In case the produced gene is innovative
and as a useful function, it gets incorporated into the host cell’s genome becoming a
permanent fragment of that cell. (Villarreal, L, 2004).
 Some of the well-known examples of viruses are: HIV/AIDS, Lunar exploratory module
(LEM), T4 bacteriophage, ATV (Acidianus-Tailed-Virus) etc.
Virus being considered to be non‐ living
 All the bio molecular aspect of life in any virus has been parasitized as they depend on
the host cell for energy and raw material required for synthesis of proteins, nucleic acid,
transport and other processing etc. so as to help them replicate. The virus lack the ability
to reproduce own their own and can replicate using the host body. Therefore from this
observation, it is has been concluded by many scientists that the virus are non-living
parasites getting energy from any living metabolic systems and gets crystallized
(Forterre, P, 2010).
 The virus is not composed of cells and therefore is termed as a molecular entity rather
than being a cellular entity and do not metabolize on their own. (Villarreal, L, 2004)
 They lack a collection of integrated organs thereby failing to reach a critical complexity.
 In the nut shell, the viruses can be considered as a fugitive host gene having being
degenerated into a parasite as they are unable to exhibit the properties of life outside the
host cells. (Forterre, P, 2010)
Virus being considered to be a living
 The viruses are seen to possess genetic material and other proteins in their cell.

 Furthermore they have the potential to replicate, multiply and even mutate albeit using a
host body. The virus have a double-stranded DNA as their genetic material.
 They have a tendency of behaving like an intracellular obligate parasite due to the use of
the replication machinery of the host.
Conclusion: The viruses are unique and complex organisms and cannot simply be characterized
as a living or non-living. Therefore alternative methods of classification is required for their
classification.

 References
Villarreal, L, 2004, ‘Are Viruses Alive?’, Scientific American vol.291 pp. 100 ‐ 105
Forterre, P, 2010, ‘Defining Life: The Virus Viewpoint’, Orig.Life Evol Biosph, vol. 40 pp. 151‐
160