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Horizontal gene transfer and viruses
Numsgil:
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--- Quote ---So each virus would have an ID tag, and each cell has an ID tag. The two must match for a virus to infect a cell.
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Just to clarify: those tags would be derived from DNA structure, not a specific "tag" command?
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I should be more clear. Bots have ID tags. DNA is controlled much the way you were saying, with looking for specific commands that match a specific pattern.
So deciding what bits of DNA to copy would be decided using specific patterns of the DNA.
Once the DNA is formed into a virus, it could only penetrate another bot if it knows the pattern of the "victims" coating.
Thus viruses would spread amongst a species more readily than across species lines.
shvarz:
Nums: Hmm, still not clear to me. Seems like you are adding another (unnecessary) level of complexity. In my view "DNA pattern"="tag". No need for additional non-DNA-related tags. DNA is specific for a bot, it already has mechanisms for mutating, so it is perfectly suitable for this purpose.
Endy: Different viruses have different ways. There are viruses that can "enter" pretty much any known cells, be they from insects or from humans. Other viruses are very specific - they recognize a specific protein on the surface of cells (the protein's normal function has nothing to do with viruses or transmission of genetic information, most often these are transporting proteins). And making tags out of DNA should not be CPU-costly, it is done only once, when bot is born. Well, maybe re-calculated if bot is infected with a virus, but that should not happen too often.
Endy:
Makes sense thanks for the information.
Okay, just looked online, it seems retroviruses use mainly the method you described to take over cells; so it seems fair enough.
If we ever get the chance I'd love to see something similar to rna and rna viruses somehow working in DB. Someday maybe. :)
shvarz:
If you ever want to know ANYTHING about retroviruses - you are welcome to ask me :)))
Endy:
How does dna fight them?
Why isn't our dna even longer with continous addition of new viruses? If the germline kept increasing in size you'd think there would be more problems.
We can do many a thing dna can't do naturally and yet we still have problems with these in DB. I'm impressed dna manages to keep going in the face of all the varied threats to it's survival.
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