This is not a universal sentiment in the biology community and some like myself count viruses as oganisms. And I maintain not counting them is very very stupid. They have lineages, code which evolves over time, and self replicate in the right conditions. Just like every other "organism". If we're counting obligate parasites' as organisms, there's no reason to not count viruses. And there are some viruses bigger than some bacteria with thousands of genes.
Prions on the other hand don't really evolve, it's just the same misfolded protein constantly.
TTEchironex t1_jbpun8n wrote
Reply to comment by r0botdevil in I just learned that the known shortest DNA in an “organism” is about 1700 base pairs in a certain virus. Is there a minimum amount of “code” required for an organism (or virus) to function in any capacity? by mcbergstedt
This is not a universal sentiment in the biology community and some like myself count viruses as oganisms. And I maintain not counting them is very very stupid. They have lineages, code which evolves over time, and self replicate in the right conditions. Just like every other "organism". If we're counting obligate parasites' as organisms, there's no reason to not count viruses. And there are some viruses bigger than some bacteria with thousands of genes.
Prions on the other hand don't really evolve, it's just the same misfolded protein constantly.