'WE OWE MUCH OF OUR EXISTENCE TO VIRUSES'

Your book argues against a polarised perspective that views viruses as agents of diseases. Why did you feel the need to speak up for them at a time when the world is in the middle of a viral pandemic?

As a nature lover and writer, I find it appalling, especially when scientists form biases and create opinions about life forms. We must remember that nothing in nature is wasteful and every creature serves a function. I wanted to tell stories of how little we know about the microbial world, even less about viruses. We (like

all life forms) owe much of our existence to viruses.

Throughout the book, you often refer to viruses as the simplest life forms. Does this mean you have found the answer to whether or not viruses are alive?

The fact that these entities can infect a specific life form, then use its genes and proteins to make more of their kind—and make near error-free symmetrical progeny—generation after generation shows that viruses are not dead. The jury is still out, but scientists are getting convinced they need to be assigned as living. Taxonomists and virologists have found such mind-boggling diversity in this “invisible empire” that they have expanded the traditional seven-rank Linnean classification to 15.

Which theory is more credible: that the virus came first or that it could only have arisen when cellular life was in place?

I don’t think we can have a definitive answer any time soon, but clearly all scientists have abandoned the "virus first" hypothesis. I believe it may have been possible for some species of viruses that may have followed different evolutionary strategies and trajectories. Analyses using more sophisticated methods on genomes of hosts and their specific viruses might provide these answers.

You have mentioned that eventually the virus down-mutates to become more benign. Do you see such an eventuality for SARS-CoV-2?

Viruses are blind and not driven towards any goal, and work in a random fashion, taking evolution in no specific direction. Viruses take every opportunity to absorb and affix information in the form of genes from their hosts. The repetitive introduction of SARS-COV-2 among diverse human populations and its crossover to domestic and wild animals confounds any prediction. It is also hard to predict if there will be any possible interactions with resident viruses. In such a scenario, speciation is likely to continue and new variants will emerge.

Viruses are blind and not driven towards any goal; they work in a random fashion, taking evolution in no specific direction, PRANAY LAL tells SNIGDHA DAS in an interview. Edited excerpts: