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| An answer came from Dr. Olaf Schneewind, MD/PhD of the University of Chicago, who said, “I hadn't thought of that. Yah, you could say that.” We'd been talking on the phone in early 2003. Why had I been thinking that all viruses are male? The reason has to do with the direction of transfer of nucleic acid. Consider the entire biological world but leave out viruses. Wherever there are male and female moieties involved in reproduction, the male is the donor of nucleic acid, while the female is the recipient. That rule applies all the way from bacteria to human beings. However, in the reproduction of viruses, the virus is always a nucleic acid donor. Again, always a donor, never a recipient. The viral nucleic acid might, for example, be donated to a bacterium--or perhaps to a cell in a more complex plant or animal. In any case, there are elements within the bacterium, or within the plant, animal, or other cell infected by the virus--elements that play the part that WOULD be played by the female virus—if there WERE female viruses. Those elements enable viral reproduction. But our central idea is that there are no female viruses: all viruses are male. And, as indicated, I call those elements within a bacteria, or whatever other cell is infected by a given virus, the "female moiety" of that virus. Click to continue article |
| Are all viruses male? |
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| proposal for a new definition of viral "species": CLICK |
| results of a survey of biologists and medical people on the virus gender question: CLICK |