Talmudic Question #88

How come viruses have developed so many different ways to penetrate into their host cells?

Comments

[Alberto Carmona Bayonas]

Ahh... they are just returning home when they find the unpleasant surprise that someone has changed the locks... They don't have another thing to do in life that try again and again, in a brute force manner, until they get a new set of keys. It seems to be a rather stupid response, but I think it is real!!!

[Claudio]

Just because. It would be very surprising if they didn't.

[Mark]

I've always envisioned viruses as being a type of "shuttle" entity, in particular an entity that mediates gene transfer. For example, viruses in the ocean could possibly be a major contributor to gene flow and the ability to "shuttle" genes between organisms is reliant on the ability of the virus to enter the cell. In the eukaryotic world we see viruses like retroviridae that incorporate themselves into host genomes or other viruses like polyoma or papilloma which perform similar activities related to transferring genes. The common element of virus propagation and establishment of this gene flow is viral entry. One can imagine that as life became more complex(multi-cellular organisms with tissue specific cells) viruses evolved more mechanisms to enter their host.

[Francisco Torrella]

How come viruses have developed so many different ways to penetrate into their host cells?
Humm… Certainly that’s an interesting question… At least it’s as interesting as the one on the other side of the mirror:
How come cells have developed so many different ways to allow being penetrated by their parasites and not dying in such a dangerous dance? Humm…That must mean that the viruses aren’t always the bad guys of the story, isn’t it?

Obviously, all of the above happens without neither viruses nor cells “thinking about it all” or at least that’s how most of us think it happens these days and happened in the past since more that 3500 millions years ago. Let’s tune our thoughts with “those” that Mother Nature has concerning population control and the dynamics of genetic variation and selection. Again and again we stumble with the essential roles played by viruses in natural environments concerning live diversity and living beings survival, and death too !!! of course.Because, after all, these little creatures called virus must multiply. The wheel must go on, isn’t it?

[Ryan Frisch]

Did the last common ancestor to virus have only one way to penetrate cells?

[Hollis]

maybe to circumvent the many different ways hosts have developed to fight viral penetration.