Whether viruses are living biological entities or not is always a moot point, since they outsource many core biological functions from their host. It is amazing that a newly detected creature straddles between virus and cell. The name of this new creature is Sukunaarchaeum mirabile which too outsources some functions. However, it can create its own ribosomes and RNA.
Life is defined in terms of sentient animals, all the way down to unicellular organisms such as ameba capable of reproduction. Some organisms such as viruses do not grow and reproduce on their own. Neither do they produce their own energy. They are not qualified to be living. A virus that infects a host, it gets activated and can be quite eventful, say can bring about Covid pandemic, ebola, Spanishflu and so on.
Life is complex, and some organisms defy the criteria of both living and non-living. Researchers in Canada came across an entity that dwells in definition of virus and cellular life. It has been named Sukunaarchaeum mirabile after a Japanese deity. It creates from genes its own ribosomes and mRNA, something that a typical virus lacks. However, just like a virus, it offloads certain biological functions to its host, and it is obsessed with replicating itself. Its genome is stripped down and primarily encodes DNA replication, transcription and translation. It has very high dependence metabolically on its host. This condition exists between cellular life and viruses.
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