Viruses ARE Living

Viruses ARE living things.

"After analysing the folds in 5,080 organisms and 3,460 viruses, the researchers found that viruses and modern cells share 442 protein folds, and only 66 are virus-specific. But those 66 are unlike anything seen in cells, which contradicts the hypothesis that viruses simply took all their genetic materials from cells.

This information allowed them to build a rough tree of life, which showed that viruses share a common ancestor with modern cells, but are more ancient.

"Viruses originated from multiple ancient cells ... and co-existed with the ancestors of modern cells," the researchers write in Science Advances."

Viruses ARE alive, and they're older than modern cells, new study suggests