Jump to ContentJump to Main Navigation
Chimeras and ConsciousnessEvolution of the Sensory Self$
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content.
Chimeras and Consciousness: Evolution of the Sensory Self

Lynn Margulis, Celeste A. Asikainen, and Wolfgang E. Krumbein

Print publication date: 2011

Print ISBN-13: 9780262015394

Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: August 2013

DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015394.001.0001

Show Summary Details
Page of

PRINTED FROM MIT PRESS SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.mitpress.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright The MIT Press, 2022. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in MITSO for personal use.date: 27 May 2022

Valuable Viruses

Valuable Viruses

Chapter:
(p.16) (p.17) 1 Valuable Viruses
Source:
Chimeras and Consciousness
Author(s):

Frank P. Ryan

Publisher:
The MIT Press
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262015394.003.0002

This chapter introduces the viruses—biological entities so small they are not even selves. It analyzes how viruses, although not autopoietic entities nor alive, promote healthy life by engaging in “cyclical symbioses.” It evaluates cyclical symbioses: how viruses move genes into and then out of living cells and whole organisms. This chapter shows that the recent insight into viruses and their potential in symbiosis as part of “self” offers exciting new possibilities for research. It suggests that viruses are still fundamental to genetic fusions across disparate taxa lineages and in the origin of sensation in cells and organisms.

Keywords:   viruses, cyclical symbioses, genes, living cells, organisms, genetic fusions, taxa lineages

MIT Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.

Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.

To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.