The story of life’s beginnings gets stranger when you look closely at viruses. These tiny entities seem to sit at the edge of biology.

SMBE Journals (Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution) Despite the fact that viruses are among the simplest biological entities--consisting only of DNA or RNA encapsulated in ...

Viruses acquire genes from eukaryotes — organisms whose cells store their DNA in a nucleus — and use them for their own function. Conversely, eukaryotes acquire genes from viruses to bring new ...

Researchers studying strains of a lethal canine virus and a related human virus have determined why the canine virus was able to spread so quickly from cats to dogs, and then from sick dogs to healthy ...