ArticleOrigins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life2010
Defining life: the virus viewpoint.
Article in Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tailoring virus-inspired nanoparticles for advanced drug and gene delivery.Materials today. Bio · 2026Review
- Virocell resource manipulation under nutrient limitation.mSystems · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Diversity of Haemosporidian-Associated Matryoshka RNA Viruses in a Natural Population of Wild Birds.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Virucidal Coatings Active Against SARS-CoV-2.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Iron‑sulfur clusters in viral proteins: Exploring their elusive nature, roles and new avenues for targeting infections.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular cell research · 2024Review
- Review
- Article
- Review
- Eighteen distinctive characteristics of life.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Cellular and Natural Viral Engineering in Cognition-Based Evolution.Communicative & integrative biology · 2023Review
- Chemical-Biology and Metabolomics Studies in Phage-Host Interactions.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2023Article
- Self-empowerment of life through RNA networks, cells and viruses.F1000Research · 2023Review
- Cationic Surfactants as Disinfectants against SARS-CoV-2.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Viral dUTPases: Modulators of Innate Immunity.Biomolecules · 2022Review
- Schrödinger and the Possible Existence of Different Types of Life.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- What is life?Molecular biology reports · 2021Article
- Euglenozoa: taxonomy, diversity and ecology, symbioses and viruses.Open biology · 2021Review
- Investigating the Concept and Origin of Viruses.Trends in microbiology · 2020Review
- Laser irradiated phenothiazines: New potential treatment for COVID-19 explored by molecular docking.Journal of photochemistry and photobiology. B, Biology · 2020Article
- Novel RNA viruses associated with Plasmodium vivax in human malaria and Leucocytozoon parasites in avian disease.PLoS pathogens · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Are viruses alive? Until very recently, answering this question was often negative and viruses were not considered in discussions on the origin and definition of life. This situation is rapidly changing, following several discoveries that have modified our vision of viruses. It has been recognized that viruses have played (and still play) a major innovative role in the evolution of cellular organisms. New definitions of viruses have been proposed and their position in the universal tree of life is actively discussed. Viruses are no more confused with their virions, but can be viewed as complex living entities that transform the infected cell into a novel organism-the virus-producing virions. I suggest here to define life (an historical process) as the mode of existence of ribosome encoding organisms (cells) and capsid encoding organisms (viruses) and their ancestors. I propose to define an organism as an ensemble of integrated organs (molecular or cellular) producing individuals evolving through natural selection. The origin of life on our planet would correspond to the establishment of the first organism corresponding to this definition.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.