Why can t computer viruses evolve?

Hello: Computer viruses are programs and do not have the function of automatic evolution.

Because computer viruses are not living things.

Viruses need to adapt to environmental changes to evolve, and genetic mutation and genetic recombination are the two main ways to promote the evolution of viruses.

The structure of the virus is very simple, and the genetic material is also very simple, so in the process of virus replication, mutations at several key loci may have a great impact on the transmissibility and pathogenicity of the virus, and may also affect the effectiveness of vaccines, antibodies and drugs. At the same time, a variety of new crown mutant strains have also appeared in many countries and regions. Then, whether the existence of these mutant strains will affect the effect of the vaccine has also become the focus of everyone's attention.

A number of new coronavirus vaccines independently developed by China are still effective against the current mutant strains.

Genetic recombination is another means of virus evolution, gene mutation changes the genome of the virus relatively small, and recombination will replace a certain gene segment of virus A with the corresponding fragment of virus B, and such recombination is often easy to produce new viruses. The well-known H7N9 avian influenza disease is caused by genetic remating of wild birds from East Asia and flocks in Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu in China.

It is not a virus that can evolve into harmlessness, and at present, various viruses are constantly mutating, some of which are more contagious and some of which are weaker. But it's still harmful anyway.

Any virus is treated with a series of harmless treatments. If it can achieve the purpose of harmlessness and promote the first reaction, it is already a mature and successful vaccine.

As the simplest life form, the virus can be said to have given up everything that can be discarded, and the rest are the necessary parts for its survival and reproduction, and from an evolutionary point of view, it is difficult to have room for evolution.

In response to your question, we first need to understand how the virus works. Viruses are made up of protein coats and internal nucleic acids. During infection, the virus first comes into contact with the host cell and adsorbs to the corresponding recognition protein, and then finds a channel to inject its nucleic acid into the host cell (RNA viruses also need to inject reverse transcriptase).

After nucleic acids are injected into cells, new nucleic acids and protein coats can be synthesized using the host's DNA synthase and various raw materials, and assembled into new viruses inside the host cells. When the number of viruses reaches a certain level, it will affect the function of cells, causing cells to die, and finally the new viruses will be released to infect other cells.

The purpose of the virus to infect cells is very simple, that is, to reproduce, and killing the host is also a helpless move, because the virus lives in his house, not only eats and drinks from his family, but also gives birth to a bunch of children, and finally the host is empty and starves to death. If they could, the virus would rather not kill the host

Of course, what we're talking about above are fast viruses, such as the recent coronavirus. There is also a lentivirus, such as HIV. Lentiviruses have an incubation period, during which they secretly insert the host's nucleic acid and can coexist with the host for a long time.

There is no conclusion on how the virus evolved, and there are three main theories, namely:

1) The doctrine of degenerative origin. The theory of degenerative origin holds that viruses are degenerated forms of intracellular parasites. This intracellular parasitism may be caused by the microorganism's heavy dependence on a metabolism that cannot cross the cell membrane.

Inside the cell, such parasites can gradually lose some of their biological functions without affecting their survival. They must retain functions such as having an origin of DNA replication (cis-elements) that can replicate autonomously, trans-regulatory proteins that can regulate replication, and cis- and trans-functions that can interact with host biosynthesis and replication systems. The resulting selection structure yields an obligate intracellular parasitic DNA molecule or plasmid.

The theory of degenerative origin can explain the origin of viruses as two stages: first, the parasite produces an independent replicating DNA plasmid within the cell, and then, the gene encoding the subcellular structural unit of the parasite is mutated to form the capsid protein of the virus. As evolution occurs, newly acquired properties that can be transferred from cell to cell are further selected.

2) The theory that viruses originate from RNA and/or DNA components in host cells. This theory holds that viruses evolved independently from normal cellular components that acquired the ability to replicate autonomously during evolution. This doctrine explains the origin of all viruses:

DNA viruses originate from plasmids or transfer factors; Retroviruses originate from retroposons; RNA viruses originate from mRNA that replicates autonomously.

3) The theory that viruses originate from primitive macromolecules with autonomous replication functions, i.e., viruses originate from RNA molecules that replicate autonomously. RNA multimers have the information and ability to replicate autonomously. The discovery of the ability of RNA molecules to catalyze chemical reactions has made the theory of RNA as the origin of life and viruses even more attractive.

Small, simple RNA molecules have at least three chemical functions: 1) RNase activity; 2) It can self-splice to remove the internal nucleic acid sequence (nucleic acid); 3) Experiments have shown that RNA can be used as primers to synthesize template-dependent polycytosine nucleic acids. That is, RNA molecules can carry out three basic reactions related to replication and evolution.

These observations support the theory that RNA is the evolutionary origin of modern organisms. The first is the formation and replication of RNA, then evolves into a series of RNA-protein-mediated reactions, and the third step produces information that eventually becomes genetic due to being more stable than RNA. The reactivity of RNA favors it as a catalyst and not as it becomes genetic material.

Some molecules are packaged in cells and tissues to form host cells, while others replicate themselves or parasitize in host cells to evolve into viruses. This theory holds that viruses and hosts co-evolve. Today's virus-like and satellite RNAs still retain some of their catalytic properties, and are therefore considered by some scholars to be fossils of the RNA world before the emergence of life forms.

Viruses, in fact, are always evolving.

Viruses and bacteria, like bacteria, need to be parasitic on organisms in order to survive. In fact, similar to other animals and plants in nature that have a symbiotic relationship, once the virus parasitizes the host, it wants to survive for a long time, so it naturally hopes that the host's life will last longer. Once the virus is parasitic in the human body, it often kills the host, in fact, because the human body is not yet suitable for the virus, and the host's immune system has been completely destroyed before the virus has time to evolve.

1. Why viruses parasitize in human bodiesMost of the hosts of viruses in nature are mostly animals, of course, including plants and some bacteria. They have been kept in the bodies of animals for a long time, and have long achieved "peaceful coexistence" with animals. In other words, the immune system of these parasitic animals is able to accommodate the presence of viruses due to continuous evolution and adaptation.

However, humans always have various opportunities to come into close contact with these animals and plants, so the virus is easily transferred to the human body. However, we need to know that the human body, as the new host of the virus, will not be friendly and compatible from the beginning.

Second, the battle between the virus and the human immune systemThe virus has moved to this completely unfamiliar environment in the human body, and it must be extremely uncomfortable at first, and it has to "fight" with white blood cells and so on from time to time. In fact, both the virus and the human body reject each other's existence because unfamiliarity leads to discomfort. However, the human immune system often lacks awareness and understanding of this virus that it has never been exposed to, and does not know its weakness.

Therefore, in the fight to the death, one side must be seriously injured, and it is clear that the virus often has the upper hand. Therefore, in the eyes of the outside world, it is natural that the virus kills the host.

The fact is that the virus evolves, mutates and multiplies much faster than humans can imagine, and when it finds itself in a new host, it continues to mutate, hoping to adapt to the human body as soon as possible or to accommodate its existence by altering certain immune responses in the human body. However, this is a difficult process to achieve, and the human body is simply unable to withstand the evolution and reproduction of the virus, and has died before it can achieve symbiosis with the virus. In fact, we should learn a lesson from this, not to have too close "contact" with wild animals and plants.

Wrong. Viruses are only perceived by humans when they are harmful to the human body, and there are many viruses that are harmless, but you don't know it.

The so-called virus is to strengthen itself by absorbing the host's nutrients, and it is a creature that only benefits itself and causes damage to others, so the continuous purification of the virus will only lead to its increasing harm to human beings.

It's not that people have evolved to be harmful to the human body, it's that it's that kind of thing. But not all viruses are harmful to humans.

The so-called "harmless" is just that the human body adapts to the virus, and the virus will not cause harm to the human body. In fact, there are already such phenomena today, such as influenza viruses, which can no longer cause as much harm to the human body as before; In addition, now that there are asymptomatic infections in the new crown pneumonia, it means that the new crown virus can adapt to the body of some people, and the new crown virus is "harmless" for those asymptomatic infected people.

If a virus can evolve to be harmless to the human body, then it is not called a virus, and it is precisely because humans have no way to change it that it is called a virus.

Its way of life is parasitic, and it must have a host cell to provide it with matter and energy, so it is determined that it cannot evolve into harmless.

Because viruses also need to protect themselves, viruses can survive by constantly infecting other cells, and if viruses evolve into harmless, they cannot survive.

Benefits of biological viruses.

1. Bacteriophages can be used as specific drugs for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases, such as applying Bacillus aeruginosa phage dilution to the affected area in burn patients.

2. In cell engineering, some viruses can be used as melting aids for cell fusion, such as Sendai virus.

3. In genetic engineering, viruses can be used as carriers of target genes to be spliced on the chromosomes of target cells.

4. Viruses added to a specific bacterial medium can be impurified.

5. Viruses can be used as carriers for precision-guided drugs.

6. Viruses can be used as special insecticides.

7. Viruses also play a key role in the biosphere's material circulation and energy exchange

Viral vaccines are good for humans to protect against viruses – they have contributed to the evolution of humans, and many of our genes are derived from viruses.

A virus is a non-cellular life form, it is composed of a long nucleic acid chain and a protein coat, and the virus has no metabolic mechanism of its own, no enzyme system. As a result, when the virus leaves the host cell, it becomes a chemical substance that has no life activity and cannot reproduce on its own. Once in the host cell, it can use the matter and energy in the cell, as well as the ability to replicate, transcribe, and translate, to produce a new generation of viruses like it based on the genetic information contained in its own nucleic acids.

Viral genes, like genes in other organisms, can also be mutated and recombined, so they can also evolve. Because viruses do not have independent metabolic mechanisms and cannot reproduce independently, they are considered to be an incomplete life form. In recent years, a virus-like body that is simpler than a virus has been discovered, which is a small RNA molecule that does not have a protein shell, but it can cause disease in animals.

The existence of these incomplete life forms shows that there is no insurmountable gulf between inanimate and animate.

The complexity of the structure of the organism itself is also possible for them to achieve a certain function, and only when the function is realized, can it be possible to realize its meaning, therefore, the virus is the simplest structure of the organism found in the biological world so far, then, reproduction is already the greatest significance for them, reproduction means continuation and spread, in a few years, you can't guarantee that the virus will not evolve smarter? Well, it makes a lot of sense.

It's just to keep creating new viruses.

All beings are equal! What living thing in the world didn't evolve from protists that don't even have cellular tissue?