Evolutionary master viruses
The level of knowledge I have about the physiology of viruses and their evolutionary history is very low, since as you know I work as a professor of agricultural botany and therefore I have specialized in interpreting the wonderful plant world, however, since the arrival of the pandemic by the new coronavirus (covid-19) I have been interested in knowing a little in narrating the biological and evolutionary behavior of viruses.
Fig. 2 The origin of viruses holds the keys to a better understanding of evolutionary phenomena. Image of public domain, Author: Syaibatulhamdi, 2020
It is assumed that before the appearance of plants on the face of the planet earth, there were already microorganisms, mainly bacteria and viruses, however, it is worth mentioning that science has spent more time studying the evolution of plant species, as it is deduced that it is much more complex than that of the rest of living organisms.
The evolution of plant species is usually associated with the origin of the first plant cell and the subsequent organographic constitution of the first plants, which subsequently develop and adapt to environmental conditions. However, it should be emphasized that although science has not given much importance to the origin of viruses, these hide keys to better understand the phenomenon of evolution because they constantly mutate and create new variants with each replication cycle, an element that makes them the masters of evolution.
In this sense, this continuous behavior exhibited by viruses to create new variants in each cycle is the reason why it is so difficult to control the perfect biological replication machinery of viruses, on the other hand, it is to consider that for science these responses were considered as simple coding errors, but now it is known that these are not errors each time they replicate, but evolutionary adaptations to coexist with the host.
This is the reason why in the current Covid-19 pandemic, it has not been possible to counteract the constant appearance of new variants, since the virus has made evolutionary adaptations to coexist in different geographical conditions and hosts with different immunological strengths.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES CONSULTED:
[1] Domingo E., Parrish C., and Holland J The Widespread Evolutionary Significance of Viruses. Origin and Evolution of Viruses. 2008: 477 – 516. Article: Online access
[2] Geoghegan J., and Holmes E Evolutionary Virology at 40. Genetics. 2018; 210: 1151 – 1162. Article: Online access
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Definitely agree! We don't have control on how the viruses evolve and adapt to the environment. It is difficult top provide a countermeasure to prevent new variants for the COVID-19 virus because these viruses constantly find ways to exits in the environment they are in.
Thank you for sharing , @lupafilotaxia. It is informative and give a me a new knowledge about viruses. !wine
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Hi @lupafilotaxia
Studying viruses and understanding it properly i.plica to have knowledge of genetics. In view of the fact that viruses are fragments of RNA or RNA. But it is exciting, and tells us that they can despite their tiny size show a large adaptive pattern.
Greetings my friend @josevas217
Right, having knowledge in genetics and its link with virology, allows us to have a better understanding of the behavior of viruses, in undergraduate I studied microbiology and plant pathology and was very little knowledge that I could grasp, basically because the subject is oriented to study how to treat infections and diseases that bacteria, viruses, fungi and nematodes produce to crops.
Best regards, be well.
Hello professor @lupafilotaxia, excellent your explanation on the evolution of viruses, from my humble opinion viruses are like human beings because we must adapt to all situations that we are presented to coexist in this world, as you very well explain viruses evolve to adapt to different ecosystems in which they are, I remember that with the arrival of COVID-19 one of the first information that the WHO provided was that the virus would not survive at temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, many thought that Venezuela would not arrive because it is a tropical country with very high temperatures in most of its States and the reality was different, it arrived and adapted quickly to our environment.
Excellent publication.
Viruses, as Darwin wrote in his theory on species, practice adaptation to survive, create new organisms with different characteristics in order not to disappear, for this reason the use of antibiotics is limited to a certain time, otherwise it will become harmless since the virus it attacks will reproduce with the variant of immunity to it, now when it comes to immunizations as in the case of covid, vaccines, which are manufactured containing the virus generally achieve the goal of preventing the disease from becoming serious.