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Viruses are living or non - living?...

Viruses are living or non - living?

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Viruses are microscopic organisms that have characteristics of both living and non-living.
A virus consists of a strand of DNA or RNA covered by a protein coat.
This presence of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) suggests that viruses are alive.
In addition, they can also a respond to their environment (inside the host cell) in a limited manner.
However, some other characters, such as their inability to reproduce without using the host cell machinery and their acellular nature indicate that viruses are non-living.
Therefore, classifying viruses has remained as mystery for modern systematics.
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