Question

Organise a discussion in your class on the topic- Are viruses living or non- living?

Answer 1

Hint: Viruses are a microscopic parasite, which is highly infectious and disease-producing. Viruses are the exception to cell theory because for multiplication it uses other organisms' cellular machinery.

Complete Answer:
Viruses are both living and non-living because they show characteristics of both, viruses don't have their own DNA and RNA, When a virus enters the host body it starts to use host nucleic acid for their survival and growth. Outside of the host, viruses behave like non- living parasites. The scientist also got confused by observing the nature of the virus and they weren't able to decide whether viruses are prokaryotes or eukaryotes, in the end, they put viruses out of the five-kingdom classification.
Viruses are symmetrical, helical, and cubical. Viruses also show the following characteristic, viruses are too small that they can enter into ultramicroscopic bacterial proof filter paper, they exist on both extracellular and intracellular surface, they don't have a cellular organization like prokaryotes and eukaryotes, they don't grow in size, they show host specificity and heritable mutation. Viral infection cannot be cured with the help of antibiotics because of the absence of a cell wall.
A bacteriophage is a common example of a virus which may be virulent or nonvirulent, in which viruses kill bacteria and release the daughter virus after rupturing. Reproduction in viruses causes the synthesis of daughter viruses, and after synthesis lysis of host cells takes place for the production of a large number of viruses.

Note: Sub viral agents of viruses include vigorous prions, viroids, and virusoids. Component of the cell of the viral agent is different from the main virus, viroids have ssRNA, prions have protein whereas viroids contain small circular DNA.