Human - Virus CROSSBREED

[Souper]

Ok. What i am about to suggest may either be impossible or incredibly difficult, but if it can be done, what would happen?

So, we take a human (Homo sapiens) and created a hybrid with them using Influenza (The flu).

So, what WOULD happen if we made a cross between a human, and a virus?

What would the virus do with sentience?

What would the human do with the ability to infect others and give them superpowers, like mind-over-flesh? Or surviving almost anything?

[KerikBalm]

This question makes about as much sense as a questions about making a Franchise business model - Hindenburg airship hybrid.

If your question about hybridization is simply limited to combining any part of a human's DNA with any part of a Virus's DNA, then I've done it with Adenovirus and human promoters.

No, there were no signs that the virus was sentient.

Or are you talking about males in general?

Edited July 11, 2014 by KerikBalm

[Awaras]

We are all already human/virus hybrids, since our genome contains the genes of several viruses that were inserted long ago...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endogenous_retrovirus

[sal_vager]

Though this thread might illicit some science responses, the title puts it firmly in Space Lounge territory

[Alshain]

Here is the perfect example human/virus crossbreed

[Souper]

Well i'm talking a human that's up to 40% virus.

[sal_vager]

Well i'm talking a human that's up to 40% virus.

So, very very ill or dead?

[Ravenchant]

Well i'm talking a human that's up to 40% virus.

That mess of DNA can hardly be called human anymore.

[lajoswinkler]

Our genome mostly is viral in origin, so...

[Souper]

No i'm talking the virus and the human cells completely merging into one super-being.

[BigFatStupidHead]

Basically, we're saying that's what has already occured.

[Souper]

Yes. But this scenario is where it occurs on a larger scale. For instance, the hybrid can give you cancer just by giving you a handshake.

[TheDataMiner]

you couldn't do something like that by just "hybridizing" you would need to genetically engineer human DNA to have virus-like capabilities. viruses can't just "scale up" like that.

EDIT: Also cancer is not caused by a virus.

[lajoswinkler]

No i'm talking the virus and the human cells completely merging into one super-being.

As in... the common cold? Viruses enter our cells.

Viruses have radically different genome. What to merge? What parts? By how much? This isn't mixing colors in kindergarted.

EDIT: Also cancer is not caused by a virus.

"Cancer" is an umbrella term, not an exact illness. There are cancers which are caused by viruses, directly and indirectly. HPV is one example of a virus that alters our DNA so that the cells can become cancerous.

[Nothing But Rubus]

well, providing such a thing could be done, the end result would be something living largely to just reproduce, but you might know these as teenagers.

[KerikBalm]

I would call them male humans.

Think about it: we must find a "host" (female) to inject genetic material into in order to reproduce.

Injction with that genetic material causes parasitism of the host whereby host nutrients are used to replicate another male (50% of the time).

Yep, males are viruses, or rather, sperm are viruses, and males are carriers of the virus, and females are the host in which it replicates... or something like that.

Change "handshake" to "sexual intercourse", and you've got what you want.

Also, while a significant portion of our genome does contain integrated viruses, I hope you guys are not including transposons or retrotransposons, because then you're oversimplifying the continuum of what a virus is - its not so clear sometimes (particularly when it comes to degenerate cells like mycoplasma, and simple nucleic acid molecules like retrotransposons or viroids).