Virus world hypothesis

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The virus world hypothesis (or the virus-first, the virus early, or the co-evolution hypothesis) proposes that self-replicating virus-like genetic elements existed before cellular life and contributed to its emergence. It is one of several scientific hypotheses that attempt to explain the origin and evolution of viruses. All modern viruses are obligate parasites that cannot replicate independently of their cellular hosts; thus it may seem more intuitive to assume that viruses originated from cells, an idea known as the "escape hypothesis". However, within the framework of an hypothesized "virus world", modern viruses are held to be possible direct descendants of the very first replicons to arise on Earth, and to have emerged either simultaneously, or before, the evolution of cells. These primordial soup-dwelling replicons could have evolved into archaic virus-like structures, which in turn became the precursors of cellular life forms, with the latter possibly emerging as factories and...

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