What happens if one day all the viruses disappear?

The disappearance of the virus will affect the evolutionary potential of all life on the planet, including humans. Without viruses, life and planets as we know them will no longer exist.

A virus is an infectious agent in the living cells of another organism. The virus can be infectious, developing when around all forms of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and ancient bacteria.

So far, about 5,000 viruses have been described in detail and there are millions of different types of viruses.

Viruses seem to exist only to carry germs and pandemics. Major pandemics in the world have been associated with a certain virus.

But if one day all the viruses disappear, more serious consequences can happen, even greater than the pandemics we have experienced.

The virus, also known as a virus, virus or virus, was first described by Russian microbiologist DIIvanovskiy in 1892 as a "non-bacterial pathogen" infecting
tobacco plants - (Photo : SCIENCE).

Viruses are the key to the ecosystem

Phage-phage phytoplankton ecosystems are the name of a collection of viruses that specialize in bacterial parasites and eat them. Phages are the main predators of the microbial world in the ocean and can be in every other ecosystem on the planet.

If the virus suddenly disappears, some bacterial populations are able to grow quickly causing pathogens to appear, some animals will disappear forever.

These viruses kill about 20-50% of ocean bacteria every day. By eliminating the bacteria, the virus makes sure that the plankton produce oxygen with enough nutrients to perform photosynthesis, maintaining a lot of life on Earth.

Viruses control the number of species

It is a cruel fact that if a species becomes overcrowded, a virus will appear and reduce that number, regardless of whether it is a plant, animal or a human.

This conclusion is based on the analysis of numerous studies on insect pests and pandemics. "This is a very natural part of the ecosystem. When a species population becomes crowded and too strong, the virus tends to multiply very quickly to control the number of species, giving space for other organisms to reproduce. ", says Marilyn Roossinck, an ecologist at Pennsylvania State University (USA).

So if the virus disappears, competing species are likely to thrive, leading to disadvantages for other species.

The virus maintains a healthy microflora in humans and other animals

Although this is not well understood, there are more and more examples of the close interaction of viruses and the healthy growth of other species. 

Some organisms also depend on viruses to survive, or give them an advantage in a competitive world. For example, the virus plays an important role in helping cows and other ruminants turn cellulose from grass into sugars that can be metabolized and eventually digested and produced milk by the body. Or the virus helps produce some fungal species, assisting species that survive in harsh environments

Virus contributes to protecting human health

Infection with certain benign viruses can even help people stop certain pathogens.

Scientists have found that people with HIV who are infected with GBV or Human pegivirus - HPgV, a common human blood-borne virus, reduce their progression to AIDS. The GB C virus also appears to make Ebola infected people less likely to die than people without the virus.

Similarly, herpes helps mice become less susceptible to a number of bacterial infections, including plague and listeria (a type of food poisoning).

Use virus to cure

Viruses are also one of the most promising treatments to treat some malignancies . "Phage therapy" has been the subject of important research in the Soviet Union since the 1920s, using viruses to target bacterial infections.

Currently, it is one of the areas of research that is of great interest because of its ability to tailor treatments to specific species of bacteria rather than indiscriminately wipe out entire populations of bacteria such as antibiotics. .

Some patients are also cured using the virus when antibiotics fail. Selective oncolytic viruses that infect and kill cancer cells are also increasingly being discovered as a less toxic and effective cancer treatment.

The disappearance of the virus will affect the evolutionary potential of all life on the planet

Because the virus is constantly replicating and mutating, the virus also holds the secret to the genetic modification of other organisms that can be combined with them.

The virus replicates by invading the host cell and hijacking the cell. If this happens in a germ cell (egg and sperm), the virus code can be passed on to the next generation and permanently integrated.

In other words, the disappearance of a virus will affect the evolutionary potential of all life on the planet, including humans.

"The virus disappeared and humans died," said Tony Goldberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The reason is that humans are living in a state of perfect balance. The majority of viruses do not cause disease in humans, many of which play an integral role in the development of ecosystems.

Several viruses maintain the health of organisms, everything from fungi, plants to insects and humans. However, we tend to focus on bad viruses, so we often realize that the viruses are equally bad.

Without viruses, life and planets as we know them will no longer exist. And even if we wanted to, it would probably not be possible to destroy all viruses on Earth. But by imagining what the world would be like without the virus, we could better understand not only their importance to human survival but also the mysteries surrounding the virus. discoverable.