Three Theories of Evolution
According to the progressive theory, segments of DNA escaped from existing cells, mutated and eventually evolved into modern viruses. Existing mobile genes such as plasmids and transposons support this theory.
The regressive theory postulates that viruses are "devolved" bacteria. Stemming from obligate intracellular parasites such as Chlamydia, viruses would have lost a large portion of their genetic code. This theory seems to best describe large double stranded DNA viruses such smallpox.
Based on the RNA world theory of life, the Virus First hypothesis proposes that viruses evolved from the very first segments of RNA, predating the early cells.
Read more about this topic: Viral Evolution
Famous quotes containing the words theories and/or evolution:
“Whatever practical people may say, this world is, after all, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by the wildest and most hypothetical ideas. It is a matter of the very greatest importance that our theories of things that seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as possible true, and as far as possible removed from error.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.”
—Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989)