Trillions of Viruses Fall from the Sky Each Day

Re:Trillions of Viruses Fall from the Sky Each Day by curlcntr on Sunday April 15, 2018 @11:43AM (#16843124)

I saw this quote in Nature last year [1]

"Viruses outnumber prokaryotes by ten to one and are said to kill half of the world's bacteria every two days"

Maybe these two are locked in some sort of existential battle for Earth while everything else is a side show?

[1] H. Ledford, "Five big mysteries about CRISPR’s origins", Nature, 12 January 2017. Volume 541 Number 7637

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Trillions of Viruses Fall from the Sky Each Day by erikpukinskis on Sunday April 15, 2018 @12:43PM (#16843437)

Viruses are fundamentally smaller than bacteria, so they’re not really competitors in the zero-sum sense.

Saying they are in an existential battle is like saying birds and insects are in an existential battle. They might kill each other and occupy the same physical space, but one can’t really replace the other in the fitness landscape.

[ Parent | on HN ]