Fascinating article on the role that viruses may have played in the origin of life.
Added by edit:
I should add a bit more information on the link.
The hypothesis is that viruses are largely the remnants of the RNA world that was the precursor of modern life. And it was viruses that first developed DNA as the basis of genetics, and that it was infection by viruses that introduced DNA to the rest of life.
One idea (the main one in the article) is that cells rose directly out of the RNA world, and that viruses introduced DNA to the three domains we see today; bacteria, archaea, and eukaria. DNA proved to be such a superior method of genetic heredity that the ancestors of these three domain then pushed all the other life out.
The other idea is that viruses may have been responsible for introducing DNA to RNA life, but this occurred before true cells arose.
This message has been edited by Chiroptera, 12-May-2006 03:50 PM
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