". . . It is not logical to extend the analogy of the joining of virus and cell to sexual reproduction: the progeny are not composed of the genetic information of both partners. It is fair to compare the joining of virus and cell to the sex act itself. Is a glass of milk with a straw about to be plunged into it male or female? Female of course, despite the fact that the direction of flow of the white liquid is out of the glass."
We would certainly like to thank Dr. Desrosiers for being willing to engage in this debate and for not being afraid of controversy. He's French and I may unfortunately have offended him a little with my American-style levity.
I mean no disrespect.
He's seemed to be interested in determining what is scientifically true and has been game for a discussion that will hopefully help determine what the truth might be.
I think Desrosiers was partly right when he wrote that, "It is not logical to extend the analogy of the joining of virus and cell to sexual reproduction: the progeny are not composed of the genetic information of both partners."
However sexual reproduction does not necessarily require male and female. Fungi can reproduce sexually with plus and minus cells uniting to form one cell. However neither cell is the donor and neither is the recipient of nucleic acid.
So neither is male and neither is female. Plus and minus cells simply merge.
So, while I claim that all viruses are male, that doesn't need to imply that viral reproduction is sexual. And the usual form of viral reproduction is given the name "asexual," which I do not necessarily think should be changed. In that regard, then, I'm not proposing any sort of radical change based on my ideas of Platonic logic.
BUT: In my opinion, some attention might be given at this time by microbiologists to logical problems involving existing nomenclature. Although Dr. Desrosiers' observations don't seem to me to be quite in order with respect to strict logic, his isn't an uneducated opinion, and might be a good starting point for any sorting out or revision of nomenclature.
Dr. Desrosiers also objected to viruses being male because, the progeny aren't composed of the genetic information of both partners. But in viral transduction some of the DNA of the cell that the virus has infected is, indeed, sometimes incorporated into the viral genome as the virus is being produced from the cell. The incorporated DNA may have adjoined the site where the viral DNA had been originally located in the cell DNA. In that case, the viral progeny might contain genetic information from "both partners."
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