Talk:Virus

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This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Virus is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on October 5, 2009.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
June 20, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
July 14, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
October 19, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
November 4, 2007	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
February 6, 2008	Good article reassessment	Kept
September 23, 2008	Featured article candidate	Promoted
Current status: Featured article

Viruses Top‑importance

	Viruses portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Viruses, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of viruses on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.VirusesWikipedia:WikiProject VirusesTemplate:WikiProject Virusesvirus
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Microbiology Top‑importance

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Molecular Biology: MCB Top‑importance

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	This article is supported by the Molecular and Cell Biology task force (assessed as Top-importance).

Biology Top‑importance

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Medicine High‑importance

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Tree of Life Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Tree of Life, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of taxonomy and the phylogenetic tree of life on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Tree of LifeWikipedia:WikiProject Tree of LifeTemplate:WikiProject Tree of Lifetaxonomic
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Section sizes

Section size for Virus (44 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	7,958	7,958
Etymology	3,188	3,188
Origins	7,534	7,534
Microbiology	19	49,445
Discovery	1,328	1,328
Life properties	3,894	3,894
Structure	10,423	13,619
Giant viruses	3,196	3,196
Genome	5,380	7,989
Genome size	2,609	2,609
Genetic mutation and recombination	5,591	5,591
Replication cycle	7,057	7,057
Genome replication	3,063	3,063
Cytopathic effects on the host cell	2,205	2,205
Dormant and latent infections	1,288	1,288
Host range	2,448	2,448
Novel viruses	944	944
Classification	3,279	8,248
ICTV classification	2,306	2,306
Baltimore classification	2,663	2,663
Role in human disease	5,924	43,164
Epidemiology	5,484	5,484
Epidemics and pandemics	10,076	10,076
Cancer	5,037	5,037
Host defence mechanisms	7,874	7,874
Prevention and treatment	400	8,769
Vaccines	4,623	4,623
Antiviral drugs	3,746	3,746
Infection in other species	399	15,024
Animal viruses	1,803	1,803
Plant viruses	4,505	4,505
Bacterial viruses	5,497	5,497
Archaeal viruses	2,820	2,820
Role in aquatic ecosystems	8,094	8,094
Role in evolution	1,832	1,832
Applications	20	11,787
Life sciences and medicine	2,925	5,121
Virotherapy	2,196	2,196
Materials science and nanotechnology	2,897	2,897
Synthetic viruses	2,032	2,032
Weapons	1,717	1,717
See also	354	354
References	1,000	1,000
External links	715	715
Total	158,343	158,343

"Virus'" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Virus' has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2024 December 1 § Virus' until a consensus is reached. Plantdrew (talk) 01:53, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Inconsistency between this page and Marine Virus page

The section on marine viruses on this page states “There are about ten million of them in a teaspoon of seawater.”

But the marine viruses page states “A teaspoon of seawater typically contains about fifty million viruses.”

Not sure if these are conflicting numbers or whether “typically” indicates seawater close to the surface/shore. Thought it may need changing/clarifying. 208.38.228.57 (talk) 09:10, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The source used here says "10⁷ viruses per milliliter", a teaspoon on average (and there is a lot of variation) holds around 5mL, so between 10 and fifty million is close enough. The marine viruses page was, in part, copied from this article, but Wikipedia articles are written, more often than not, by different editors, so you should go by the sources given in the articles and not judge one article against another: there will often be inconsistencies, just like you get with other publications. Graham Beards (talk) 11:21, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

non-standard views of viruses

(i cant do it because my wikipedia account is new)please add a "non-standard views of viruses" tab then write a summary of the book Medical Medium by Anthony William in there Iwantbooks9999 (talk) 22:06, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You're going to have to be more specific than that about what you want, but if you're talking about this, "Anthony was born with the unique ability to converse with the Spirit of Compassion, who provides him with extraordinarily advanced healing medical information that’s far ahead of its time", I think the answer is going to be no. Drmies (talk) 22:08, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Unranked" or "Informal Group"?

The taxobox says that the taxon "Virus" is unranked but it's an informal, polyphyletic group. So it should be ranked as "informal group". Jako96 (talk) 17:35, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's the transcluded template which can be edited here Template:Taxonomy/Virus. Graham Beards (talk) 18:06, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I know. I posted it on here to gain more attention. So do you agree on the change? Jako96 (talk) 18:23, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

My apologies, because you didn't post this notice on the template talk page, I assumed you didn't know. First, you need to cite a source for this change, and then suggest the change at the appropriate venue(s). I can only agree to the change when I see the evidence for it in a reliable source, which I presume is the ICTV. Graham Beards (talk) 21:26, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. And I don't really need a source for this change because this is a taxon that Wikipedia made up. Wikipedia added that to make it simple, so it should be considered an informal group. Because no one uses a taxon called "Virus". And ICTV doesn't use that too, see Current ICTV Taxonomy Release | ICTV. Jako96 (talk) 08:01, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Jako96 Actually 🤓 there is a source that you can use. Page 17 of Phylonyms: A Companion to the PhyloCode states: «"Virus" is a functional term for a disparate array of DNA- or RNA-based replicators that are, with few exceptions [...], enclosed in a proteinaceous sheath called a capsid; the term does not refer to a taxon as such.» This article goes in more detail later on about why it's not considered a taxon and why it's probably polyphyletic. — Snoteleks (talk) 19:21, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wow! You've surprised me. But we still have to rank it as an informal group. Because first; it's informal, and second; unranked taxa MUST BE monophyletic. Jako96 (talk) 19:35, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Jako96 Correct! — Snoteleks (talk) 19:57, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I changed the rank from unranked to informal group. I also did that for these pages:

Template:Taxonomy/Viroid

Template:Taxonomy/Subviral agents

Template:Taxonomy/Circular satellite RNAs

Template:Taxonomy/Satellite nucleic acids

Template:Taxonomy/Satellites Jako96 (talk) 17:56, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Much appreciated — Snoteleks (talk) 18:02, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! But there are now-new 2 problems:

1. These pages' titles are showing as italicized:

Virus

Viroid

2. Now all the taxa that I edited are apperaring as italicized. I think the first problem will be automatically fixed when we fix the second problem. Jako96 (talk) 18:25, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Jako96 I think you fixed it already, but it's weird that it happened. That usually only happens to genera — Snoteleks (talk) 18:39, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It happened because the virusbox template always italicizes taxa that it can identify. So it also italicized the page's title. Before my edits these page titles were not italicized because the "(unranked)" rank can't be identified by the template. Jako96 (talk) 18:57, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Idk how to fix that. Jako96 (talk) 19:16, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Jako96 On another note, what do you think should be done for Protist? It's formally a taxon (Kingdom Protista) but it's also obsolete and paraphyletic. Does that count as an informal group? — Snoteleks (talk) 18:21, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Protista is not formal because it's not recognized by taxonomists anymore. I think that counts as an informal group too, yeah. Jako96 (talk) 18:36, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The italicized title needs to be fixed: it looks stupid. It should be as Bacteria is. What are you guys doing apart from messing with a FA? Graham Beards (talk) 19:16, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Idk how to fix that except ranking the "Virus" taxon as unranked. We are trying to rank it as an informal group while keeping the title non-italicized. Jako96 (talk) 19:26, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

All I can see is incompetence. Perhap you should learn how to do it without experimenting with a FA? Graham Beards (talk) 19:38, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, you're right. I'll fix that. Jako96 (talk) 19:42, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Virostatic" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Virostatic has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 April 3 § Virostatic until a consensus is reached. 1234qwer 1234qwer 4 11:34, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]