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Viruses are a group of organisms which act as interlink between living and nonliving organisms. We think so because viruses are a group of organisms which exhibit characteristics both of living organisms and of nonliving organisms. Viruses are a special kind of case which exhibits properties intermediate of both.

They exhibit living characteristics in the following manner:

● Viruses have genetic material as the entire living organism possess and it can be RNA or DNA, and this nucleic acid i.e. genetic material remains protected by a covering called protein capsid.

● They are able to replicate and can synthesize nucleic acids and proteins but for all this, they require a host, another living organism whose biosynthetic machinery they will utilize for their propagation and survival.

They exhibit nonliving characteristics in the following manner:

● Unless they don’t get any living host they are not able to replicate and propagate, therefore in absence of a living host, they will act as nonliving organism since they don’t exhibit the property of replication.

Since they can exhibit the behavior of living organisms after entering into a living host and as a non-living organism in absence of a living host, viruses are considered as an interconnecting link between the living and nonliving organisms.