This Virus Shouldn't Exist (But it Does)

Summary by Krater

This video explains the discovery, characteristics, and ecological impact of giant viruses known as girus, as well as their predators, virophages. It concludes that these giant viruses blur the line between living and dead things and may have fundamentally influenced the evolution of life.

From the video

Answers: What are giant viruses and how do they work?

• Giant viruses
• Virophages
• Microorganisms
• Virus evolution
• Chimeric organisms

What it concludes

• Viruses are the most successful beings on Earth with an estimated 10,000 billion billion billion viruses existing.
• Giant viruses, or girus, blur the line between living and dead things due to their complex genes and structures.
• Girus genes can fundamentally alter the physiology and evolution of their victims by integrating their own genomes and merging into chimeric organisms.
• Virophages hunt girus, sometimes hijacking their viroplasm factories to replicate instead of the girus.
• Some girus have a defense system against virophages similar to CRISPR in bacteria.