Are We Living Symbiotically With Viruses?

[h inandout]

Do you think that some of our cells (including our meitic cells) are gaining new reproducible DNA every time we get a cold?  Are we expressing traits differently throughout our life not only because of inheritance, epi-genetics, environmental gene-regulation, but also because we are literally getting new DNA?  I have always been surprised at how "normal" functioning people can be when they are literally missing whole chromosomes. I'm surprise that certain missing genetic links in each of our individual codes didn't pull the plug on our whole system.  I suppose there are only so many combinations, and the combinations do tend repeat.  But the fact that they all work together despite the many combinations in which they can come is totally mind blowing!  Perhaps viruses are adding a layer of complexity I hadn't even though about.  Are they supporting the process of constant change in our lives?  Does our emotional system actually react accordingly to new proteins being synthesized?  Can you get alien DNA from being touch by an alien lol?  I'm sure someone out there knows more about this than me...

[PureExp]

IMO, the human body is not a discreet or unique entity that is totally separable from environment and nicely defined.

I see it as an ecosystem, not a body, a micro-ecosystem that walks and talks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbiota

Non-human cells in our bodies outnumber human cells by 3:1 , that is for every one cell we have three non-human cells there. So if we define a human based on the criteria of a collection of cells with specific DNA (human DNA), then a human is not human at all

Mind boggling ! But its only a start of destruction of our beliefs about body - what some people like to call "me". A man would not survive if you kill all those foreign cells, they are necessary for functions of the body. Each cell is already infected with non-human DNA, with the main organelle mitochondria being an ancient virus. DNA doesn't remain in original form in cells, it keeps changing. The cells die only because the DNA gets corrupted and becomes dysfunctional, mother nature has provided a self-destruct timer there to keep cells from producing junk. (Cancer cells are rebels, they got rid of that timer).

Whole of human DNA is littered with viral codes(8%?). Some DNA gets expressed, most does not. Genes are mostly same for all living forms from potatoes to humans. The end result is partially due to code and a complex dynamics of expression that happens on the fly in an embryo. It continues for whole life. "Genetic relations" or blood relations has very little meaning if at all, you match with your parents a bit and also a fruit fly.

What are the implications of this scientific knowledge for seekers? Well, the body is illusory at many levels, just see it. This helps to break identification with this system of cells we call "me".

[jse]

1 hour ago, MissMiki said:

Are We Living Symbiotically With Viruses?

Plenty of evidence for viral mutualistic symbioses.