New virus more complex than bacteria
Recent research conducted at the Mediterranean University in Marseille, France, has identified a new virus, Mimi, that is vastly more complex than all previously discovered viruses (as well as a number of bacteria). A precursor, over the past few years J. Craig Venter, who decoded the human genome, sailed around and every few hundred miles analyzed the ocean water. With each sample, he discovered millions of new viruses that increased the number of known genes 10-fold. According to Didier Raoult, one of the researchers that discovered Mimivirus, “this thing shows that some viruses are organisms that have an ancestor that was much more complex than they are now. We have a lot of evidence with Mimivirus that the virus phylum is at least as old as the other branches of life and that viruses were involved very early on in the evolutionary emergence of life.” Mimi is one of the few viruses visible under a standard light microscope (1 millionth of a meter) and weighs 10 times the average virus (at 1.2 million letters). Moreover, it contains genes for translation of proteins and DNA repair enzymes, functions thought to be exclusive to cellular organisms. So it’s not surprise that Mimi is blurring the line separating virus and bacteria. Approximately 1 percent of the living things on the planet have been officially discovered and documented, and with about 10 times more viruses than organisms, who knows what else they can do.
Unintelligent design, Discover.com