The Virus: Biggest Order on Planet Earth

Viruses from the Latin “virus” meaning poison undoubtedly occupy a crucial role in the earth’s biosphere. Yet they defy solid explanation by modern science and there is some question as to whether they are living organisms at all. Viruses exhibit characteristics of both organic life and inorganic, living and non-living. All viruses are capable of self replication, but so are crystals estimated to have been the first non-biological self-replicators. All viruses are parasites, they do not create their own cellular structures and are wholly dependant on host cells for normal cellular function; a cellular structure is one of the pre-requisites for organic life.

Viruses do not fit well into the classical scientific hierarchical taxonomy or tree classification system either. For this reason they are slotted straight in at number six, Family level, out of nine for classification and aside from a general Order of “virales” above Family, have no subsequently higher Class, Division/Phylum, Kingdom, and root Domain. Yet the all pervasive virus Family greatly affects every single organic organism on earth.

There are two main schools of thought as to how viruses evolved, the first maintains that small viruses, or viruses with small short genome’s, could be runaway genes. The first candidate for runaway gene’s is the processes of plasmid transference created by Plasmid’s, which are not only capable of autonomous self-replication within host cells but travel freely around and even out of, multi cellular systems. The other, Transpons, Jumping Gene’s or mobile genetic elements, can move freely up and down the genome chain. They leave their position by transcribing themselves into RNA and then back into DNA at a different genome position. 48% of the human genome is made up of Transpons.

The second maintains that large viruses, or viruses with larger longer genome’s, were small cells that developed parasitical relationships with larger cells. Over time they streamlined their DNA by a process of reverse-evolution, or chucking out what you don’t need, until they became wholly dependant on host cells.

There is a definite cloud of mystery over viruses and their true role in our biosphere, everyday new connections are being made between viruses and major diseases, physiological and psychological conditions, and even our very evolution.

There are five viruses that are thought to contribute to at least 15% of the world’s cancers, 80% of which are liver and cervical cancers. They are Hepatitis B and C, Human Papilloma and the Epstein-Barr viruses. These viruses are all capable of viral cellular transformations, which result in the transformation of healthy cells into malignant tumour cells.

Recently researchers at the University of Wisconsin have isolated a virus called Adenovirus 36, which they believe can make you obese. Animals infected once with Adenovirus 36 showed over several months a 7% increase in weight and their bodies contained twice as much fat.

“Aside from a day or two of cold-like symptoms, the virus produced no observable effects besides obesity” -Richard Atkins UW

This does not of course mean all who get an Adenovirus 36 cold will become obese, there are other governing factors, but if in they are in place then yes, you will then start to become obese. The same applies to all viral infections; they can lay dormant for years or forever, like the herpes simplex virus which gives rise to cold sores and is incurable. In the Adenovirus 36 tests the infected animals did not eat any more than their opposite control group, their bodies just began to deal with that food intake differently. This gives lie to the words nearly all obese people are told at some point, why don’t you just eat less. If they are suffering from virus caused obesity, eating less would make no difference to how their bodies are handling their food uptake. Not so for exercise though, being active and eating healthily would seem to play a role in whether the virus becomes active or remains dormant.

One of the most virulent viruses the West Nile virus describes a mental disorder e.g. depression occurring before the nine day physical onset. We have all experienced a changed mental state during a bout of flu or a cold, your emotions swing wildly but mainly center on depression. Experimentally induced viral infections (such as cold and flu), have been found to produce a depressed mood and other depressive symptoms, as well as various neuropsychological impairments. Similar mental disturbances have also been reported following other chronic viral infections e.g. herpesvirus, Epstein-Barr virus, gastroenteritis, and human immunodeficiency virus. For the most part these mental conditions have been written off as depression due to a medical condition and diagnosed as; caused by the physiological mechanism of the general medical condition.

But if viruses can cause obesity then what about our very moods and mental state, how exactly does, one of the most common to us all like, herpes simplex virus, alter our mental state. Especially considering it is incurable and therefore if not completely and utterly dormant does have some affect on our bodies. So what about our minds, how are we being affected every day by the billions of viruses inside our bodies and the billions more we are exposed to every day. Because we are being affected of that there is no doubt, but to what extent.

One of the big scares of our time is the increasing resistance by mutation of viruses and bacterium to our antibiotics. How this mutation is achieved and spread by viruses leads to a very big quandary in human evolution itself. Traditional gene transfer or Vertical Transfer is the passing of gene sets from parent to child by meiosis, and old cell to new cell within the body during mitosis. Horizontal Gene Transfer is when an organism passes genetic information to another cell that are not it’s offspring from either mitosis or meiosis.

"While horizontal gene transfer is well-known among bacteria, it is only within the past 10 years that its occurrence has become recognized among higher plants and animals. The scope for horizontal gene transfer is essentially the entire biosphere, with bacteria and viruses serving both as intermediaries for gene trafficking and as reservoirs for gene multiplication and recombination” Dr Mae-Wan Ho

And this is how viruses spread rapid resistance to old and new antibiotics by laterally receiving and transferring genetic information to each other, or any other cell they invade. This essentially means that the viral species, which contains more structural genomic diversity than the entire kingdoms of bacteria, plants and animals, freely circulate around our entire biosphere and can radically change the very DNA structures of all organisms on earth. That sounds like the only world wide system that communicates with and changes us all on a daily basis at the genetic level through Vertical and Horizontal transference.

If you look at the whole earth as one complete system or individual body, then viruses are the only way to have a direct control or self-regulation over that system for the greater survival of the whole system. It is a control that protects preserves and progresses gradual genetic evolution and the quick, let’s throw the dice and see what we get, mutation. Together this has resulted in the fecund diversity that engenders the infinite complexity of our current ecological systems.

One of the biggest problems with artificially Genetically Modified Organisms or GMO crops is Horizontal Gene Transfer which can so easily take place unless the artificial plants are grown in literally virus tight enclosures. If, if they haven’t already, viruses pick up these new artificial genes present in GMO’s, they could very easily through any number of methods that are open to viruses spread this new DNA to other organisms, including us. Who is to say what the consequences of acquiring new artificial genes will be or how drastic such an alteration could be in a system of DNA as old as our planet.

If viruses are such a control system then we would unbidden and unknowingly be under the control of such a system, which looks to the survival of the whole not the part, us being the part. Could this account for the seeming rise in mortal conditions such as AIDS, Cancer, Avian Bird Flu, and the first human case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis or EEE in 2005? If so these few would barely scratch the surface of the possibilities.

This is the shroud of mystery that surrounds the true role of viruses in our biosphere. They do seem to be part of a rather unique system that acts very much like a biological email server and software update system. But with the very highest of Uber administrator privileges and permissions possible, the read, write and execute access of our DNA or hardware and software operating systems. Nature is a system that is ruthless yet bountiful, a system that well may have evolved from the very first virus self replicating. Studying viruses is like studying a roaring fire, or an exploding atom bomb, it is beautiful, fascinating and can be deadly. Viruses are intrinsically linked to gene exploration and genome projects, we would do well to tread very carefully as we enter a new age of understanding and scientific revolution. We all still only live on planet earth, if we faux it up or ourselves we have nowhere else to go. Yet.