Wired Science from Wired.com

But in most of the viral and bacterial world, copying genes and having your own copied is a way of life, one that proceeds smoothly without hindering either party. It’s a fundamental property of microbe- and virus-hood.

“Anything might happen. The virus doesn’t know. It simply does it because it can,” said Koonin. “The ability to do so is simply a byproduct of the ability to replicate DNA.”