Question

Are viruses living or non-living? Explain.

Answer 1

• Viruses are the infective nucleoprotein particles that have only two fundamental characteristics of the living system which are, presence of nucleic acid as genetic material and the ability to replicate and produce their own copies.
• Viruses can replicate only inside a host cell as they depend solely on the host machinery for producing their own copies. Hence, a virus is generally considered non-living because it is living only inside the host cell.