CRS Quarterly Research Database

Do Viruses Appear to Cluster Like Created Kinds?

Cserhati, Matthew (2019) Do Viruses Appear to Cluster Like Created Kinds? Creation Research Society Quarterly, 56 (2): 3.

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Abstract

In the book of Genesis, the creation of plants and animals is described, yet the creation of microbes (including viruses) is not mentioned. Some biologists think viruses are on the border between living and non-living organisms, since they cannot exist independently outside of their host. Some propose that retroviruses and the associated mobile genetic elements found in various animal species originated from within the host genome and fulfilled structural and regulatory functions, and were later exogenized. Previous creationist works have studied the baraminological relationships among insects, fungi, bacteria, and archaea using genomic data, but not that of viruses. This paper aims at performing such a genetic study in order to shed light on the possible baraminic relationships between prokaryotic viruses, otherwise known as bacteriophages. In this study, 159 bacteriophage strains which had 200 or more orthologous proteins in their genome were examined using the Gene Content Method. Eight phage clusters were found with varying sizes and varying host organisms. Some phage clusters infected only one family of bacterial hosts, whereas others were more promiscuous. Phages within some of the smaller clusters had a tight range for genome size, ORF number, GC%, and host morphology. In two larger clusters, phages infecting different bacterial host genera showed no significant genetic difference. Several smaller phage clusters were found, which were already described in the scientific literature, thereby adding candidate bacteriophage strains to these groups. It appears that God may have created several kinds of bacteriophages to keep various bacterial populations under control.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: Q Science (General) > QR Microbiology > QR355 Virology
Q Science (General) > QH Natural History. Biology > QH426 Genetics
Q Science (General) > QH Natural History. Biology > QH102 Baraminology. Biosystematics
Depositing User: Admin
Date Deposited: 18 Mar 2025 21:46
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2025 21:46
URI: https://crsq.creationresearch.org/id/eprint/1242

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