Biopolymers and cell. 2000; 16 (2): 87 - 98

About a conception of viruses and their place in the biosphere

V. A. Kordyum

The ideas about viruses as tools for transduction of the genetic information in tlie biosphere that provide unity of all living beings in global scale have been developed in this article. According to these ideas, tlie previous and modern meaning of notion «virus», as an infectious basis that evokes pathologic events, does not correspond to new facts and should be radically reconsidered.