Short answer: %26quot;No, absolutely not%26quot;
Longer answer:
Whilst viruses may survive out of a host for varying amount of time they, unlike other organisms, posses neither the cellular apparatus nor the genomic complexity required for truly independent survival.
Even the simplest cell contains a huge number of molecules required for its ongoing operation. It has ribosome’s for protein synthesis, a cell membrane, and possesses a hugely complex interacting network of proteins regulating everything going on within the cell from pH to osmotic pressure.
Most cells posses a huge number of genes, your cells for example posses more than 20 000 coding for over 40 000 proteins. An incredibly simplified cell may be able to survive with a thousand or so genes.
Viruses do not have any ribosomes, they have membranes but they are much simpler than their cellular counterparts, and their is very little, if any, protein / protein interaction occurring within the viron. Viruses also posses far fewer genes, with simple ones possessing 4, and even the most complex containing just over 100. HIV for example has 9.
Because of their simplicity viruses require the cellular machinery of another organism in order to reproduce. Whilst viruses may use a variety of methods they usually function by %26quot;tricking%26quot; their host cell into believing that the viral genetic material is important to the host cell, promoting it%26#039;s translation into protein.
Biologist, loves his viruses
