Question

What is virus?
Living or non living.
Explain.

Answer 1

Dear student. Virus (in latin means poisonous fluid) is a group of non cellular and highly infectious agent which can multiply inside the host cells of living organisms and outside the host cells ,viruses are inert (don't show any activity). These can be off various size such as smallest animal virus is virus which cause 'Foot and Mouth Disease' . Virus can be off various shape such as helical ,cuboid or binal and tadpole like and many more .Viruses are considered as intermediate between living and non living organisms .It is very difficult to consider whether it is living or non living . Some of viruses characters suggest they are living and some suggest they are non living . These characters are described in following lines one by one :- Living Characters 1:-They have definite shape amd morphology 2:- They exhibit the property of mutation. 3:- They possess either DNA or RNA. Non living Characters :- 1 :- They are not surrounded by any cell wall or cell membrane 2:- They are devoid of cellular metabolism and also lack respiration 3:- They are active only when they are inside the livings cells of host organism 4:- They can be precipitated like a chemical substance. Thank you Regards