Do All Cells and Microorganisms Meet the Criteria of Life?

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The discussion centers on whether all cells and microorganisms meet the established criteria of life, which include homeostasis, organization, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli, and reproduction. It highlights that while some animal species, like mules, do not fulfill all these criteria due to their inability to reproduce, many of their cells can still reproduce. The conversation acknowledges that viruses and prions typically do not meet most criteria for life, leading to the consensus that they are not considered living organisms. The debate extends to whether microorganisms that metabolize only in active phases qualify as living, suggesting that the definition of life may vary based on context. Additionally, the discussion touches on the evolution of biological criteria, noting that attributes like "movement" have been removed from the list. It also raises philosophical questions about the nature of life and the potential for simulating life-like properties in artificial life research.
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Do all cells and microorganisms fulfill the criteria of life?

Homeostasis
Organisation
Metabolism
Growth
Adaption
Response to Stimuli
Reproduction

I'm asking, because I know that there are animal species which don't fulfill all those criteria (I know a mule can't reproduce) and I was wondering if there are bacteria or cell lines out there which for example don't grow or something. It doesn't seem possible to me, but with biology you never know..
 
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Depends on what you consider a microorganism - viruses and prions do not meet most of those criteria, but the general of view of these beasties is that they are not really living.

If you include things that metabolize when they are in an active phase (not parked inside a spore for example), then I think the answer is yes. This would discard viruses, for example.
 
It's true an entire mule can't reproduce, but many of its cells surely can.
 
Yeah.
Some googling revealed, there seems to be some kind of debate out there about the criteria anyways.
I remember learning "movement" as an attribute of life in high school biology class. This seems to have been taken off the list, since.
 
Search around this site, Jim or some other frequent poster has already written prolifically about grey areas in biology and how to think about them.
 
It wouldn't be difficult to write a computer program that simulates agents having all these properties. Indeed lots of research along these lines is carried out in the field usually called "artificial life".

" Are those agents really "alive"? " Is probably more a philosophy of language question than anything else.
 
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-deadliest-spider-in-the-world-ends-lives-in-hours-but-its-venom-may-inspire-medical-miracles-48107 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versutoxin#Mechanism_behind_Neurotoxic_Properties https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0028390817301557 (subscription or purchase requred) he structure of versutoxin (δ-atracotoxin-Hv1) provides insights into the binding of site 3 neurotoxins to the voltage-gated sodium channel...
Popular article referring to the BA.2 variant: Popular article: (many words, little data) https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/ba-2-covid-severity/index.html Preprint article referring to the BA.2 variant: Preprint article: (At 52 pages, too many words!) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.14.480335v1.full.pdf [edited 1hr. after posting: Added preprint Abstract] Cheers, Tom
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