this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2026
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Science Memes

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Evolution Factsberg (mander.xyz)
submitted 3 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[โ€“] deranger@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Everything is virus: one of the theories of how cells went from RNA to DNA is viruses.

Forterre (2006) proposed that early cellular lineages diversified while still harboring RNA genomes, with viruses and cells coexisting from the beginning. In his model, the first fixation of DNA occurred in viruses, which subsequently transferred the enzymes necessary for DNA synthesis and maintenance into independent cellular lineages. Thus, RNA genomes in ancestral cells were converted into DNA genomes via viral intermediates (Forterre, 2002, 2006). The structural and functional differences among cellular replication systems would then reflect the independent viral origins of DNA replication machinery.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303264725002813

[โ€“] BurgerBaron@quokk.au 6 points 3 days ago

The latest puzzle: what the viroids doin' in our guts? Nobody knows, we are only just realised they are widespread and not exclusive to flowers or whatever Anton told me. Tiny simple RNA smudges that are too simple to even qualify as a virus.

I feel like they're as close to abiogenesis as we'll ever get, with these living fossils.