atcg Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 For complex living organisms and DNA virus, genetic information comes from DNA. For RNA virus genetic information comes from RNA. Are complex living organisms genetically more closely related to DNA virus than RNA virus ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 No. Relation to viruses is also a kind of a misnomer as functionally they are closer to mobile genetic elements as transposons, plasmids, integrons etc. rather than autonomous organisms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JN. Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 Since there are not consensus about considering viruses as being live organisms or not, I think we cannot speak about our proximity to viruses. That's just my opinion, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurningKrome Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 As mentioned by CharonY, viruses might best be considered naturally occurring biological devices, as opposed to living things. They have no metabolic functioning outside of a host cell...and pretty much do nothing but inject genetic material into the cell for the purpose of using the cells machinery to produce the proteins to make more viruses. The "choice" of using RNA over DNA to accomplish this should not infer a superiority or even an evolutionary precedence...any more than a car running on gasoline is superior than one running diesel. It is simply the mechanism by which the virus evolved to accomplish the task of reproduction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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