Читать книгу Viruses: More Friends Than Foes (Revised Edition) - Karin Moelling - Страница 25

Why is a chapter on the new pandemic virus SARS-CoV-2 part of a book on viruses which is not focusing on viral diseases but is dedicated to our understanding of the importance and positive roles of viruses for our world, our environment, our evolution, and their contribution to innovation and composition of our genes — which are almost half of viral origin. Viruses entered our genomes in the past as a protection against de novo infections and they protect embryos against a mother’s immune response. There is an intimate coexistence, a balance between microorganisms and humans, animals and plants. We are a unity and an ecosystem. Microorganisms have been around on our planet for so long and we are the newcomers. The microorganisms, including bacteria and their viruses, are necessary for our existence, we even depend on them for our survival. They help us to digest food in our guts, to cope with our surrounding, and they recycle the food chains in the oceans. Viruses of bacteria, the phages, clean up seasonal overgrowth of bacteria in the oceans.

We humans entered the scene very late and we still need to learn how to cooperate with the world.

The well-balanced ecosystem is complex and can get out of control — and this we have to blame predominantly ourselves. The causes are often wars, poverty, hunger, lack of hygiene, or ruthlessness against nature. Simple common denominators of all these occurrences are population density and mobility. We may not be able to change that in the near future or we may not even want to. That has its price. And we are presently paying for it.

In the chapters of this book the reader is invited to travel with me through the astounding world of viruses, which do not cause diseases.