I brought this up in the bouls of one of our evolution debates a while back but I was just reminded of it and figured it needed it's own topic.
the Mimi virus is the largest virus ever discovered, and it has a number of very unusual features includeing some it shouldn't even have acording to the accepted understanding of viruses.
it is larger than some bacteria
it has 911 genes, 1.2 million base pairs
included in it's genome are DNA corection genes and protein synthisis genes
inside it's capsid it has what seems to be a lipid bilayer (basicly a cell membrain)
it's basicly capable of performing all functions of a liveing cell wich has caused quite a bit of termoil in the long established place of viruses as non-life, there has even been a new domain proposed for this virus in the classification system.
it seems to have a truly anchent genome, nearing the begining of life on earth.
many viruses seem to have shared features with it.
it's genome seems to have some genes that were writen in a slightly diferent genetic language than anything else on earth.
it's both posable that this means that
A) : all (or most of the dna variety) viruses on earth may have decended from a celular ancestor, or
B) : all life on earth may have evolved from and organism that would have apeared more viruslike than celular. think about it a protein capsid is vastly simpler than the lipid blayer.
