Organism

An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual.[1] Such a definition raises more problems
than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them
widely accepted, have been proposed to define what an organism is. Among the most common is that an
organism has autonomous reproduction, growth, and metabolism. This would exclude viruses, despite the
fact that they evolve like organisms. Other problematic cases include colonial organisms; a colony of
eusocial insects is organised adaptively, and has germ-soma specialisation, with some insects
reproducing, others not, like cells in an animal's body. The body of a siphonophore, a jelly-like marine
animal, is composed of organism-like zooids, but the whole structure looks and functions much like an
animal such as a jellyfish, the parts collaborating to provide the functions of the colonial organism.

The evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann state that "organismality", the qualities or
attributes that define an entity as an organism, has evolved socially as groups of simpler units (from cells
upwards) came to cooperate without conflicts. They propose that cooperation should be used as the
"defining trait" of an organism. This would treat many types of collaboration, including the fungus/alga
partnership of different species in a lichen, or the permanent sexual partnership of an anglerfish, as an
organism.

Etymology
The term "organism" (from the Ancient Greek ὀργανισμός, derived from órganon, meaning 'instrument,
implement, tool', 'organ of sense', or 'apprehension')[2][3] first appeared in the English language in the
1660s with the now-obsolete meaning of an organic structure or organization.[3] It is related to the verb
"organize".[3] In his 1790 Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant defined an organism as "both an
organized and a self-organizing being".[4][5]

Whether criteria exist, or are needed

Among the criteria that have been proposed for being an organism are:

autonomous reproduction, growth, and metabolism[7]

noncompartmentability – structure cannot be divided without losing functionality.[6] Richard
Dawkins stated this as "the quality of being sufficiently heterogeneous in form to be
rendered non-functional if cut in half".[8] However, many organisms can be cut into pieces
which then grow into whole organisms.[8]
individuality – the entity has simultaneous holdings of genetic uniqueness, genetic
homogeneity and autonomy[9]
an immune response, separating self from foreign[10]
"anti-entropy", the ability to maintain order, a concept first proposed by Erwin
Schrödinger;[11] or in another form, that Claude Shannon's information theory can be used
 to identify organisms as capable of self-maintaining their
information content[12]
Other scientists think that the concept of the organism is inadequate in
biology;[13] that the concept of individuality is problematic;[14] and from a
philosophical point of view, question whether such a definition is
necessary.[15][16][8]

Problematic cases include colonial organisms: for instance, a colony of

eusocial insects fulfills criteria such as adaptive organisation and germ-
soma specialisation.[17] If so, the same argument, or a criterion of high co-
operation and low conflict, would include some mutualistic (e.g. lichens)
and sexual partnerships (e.g. anglerfish) as organisms.[18] If group One criterion proposes that
selection occurs, then a group could be viewed as a superorganism, an organism cannot be
divided without losing
optimized by group adaptation.[19]
functionality.[6] This basil
plant cutting is however
Another view is that attributes like autonomy, genetic homogeneity and
developing new
genetic uniqueness should be examined separately rather than demanding
adventitious roots from a
that an organism should have all of them; if so, there are multiple small bit of stem, forming a
dimensions to biological individuality, resulting in several types of new plant.
organism.[20]

Organisms at differing levels of biological organisation

Differing levels of biological organisation give rise to potentially
different understandings of the nature of organisms. A unicellular
organism is a microorganism such as a protist, bacterium, or archaean,
composed of a single cell, which may contain functional structures
called organelles.[22] A multicellular organism such as an animal, plant,
fungus, or alga is composed of many cells, often specialised.[22] A
colonial organism such as a siphonophore is a being which functions as
an individual but is composed of communicating individuals.[8] A
superorganism is a colony, such as of ants, consisting of many
individuals working together as a single functional or social unit.[23][17]
A mutualism is a partnership of two or more species which each provide A lichen consists of a body
some of the needs of the other. A lichen consists of fungi and algae or formed mainly by fungi, with
cyanobacteria, with a bacterial microbiome; together, they are able to unicellular algae or
cyanobacteria (green)
flourish as a kind of organism, the components having different
interspersed within the
functions, in habitats such as dry rocks where neither could grow
structure, and a bacterial
alone.[18][21] The evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan microbiome. The species are
Strassmann state that "organismality" has evolved socially, as groups of mutually interdependent, like
simpler units (from cells upwards) came to cooperate without conflicts. cells within a multicellular
They propose that cooperation should be used as the "defining trait" of organism.[21]
an organism.[18]
 Queller and Strassmann's view of organisms as cooperating entities at differing levels of biological
organisation[18]
Metabolism,
Level Example Composition growth, Co-operation
reproduction
No metabolism, so not living, not
an organism, say many
Tobacco mosaic Nucleic acid,
Virus No biologists;[7] but they evolve, their
virus protein
genes collaborating to manipulate
the host[18]
One cell, with
Unicellular organelles e.g. Inter-cellular (inter-organismal)
Paramecium Yes
organism cilia for specific signalling[22]
functions

Free-living unicellular amoebae

Dictyostelium for most of lifetime; swarm and
Swarming Unicellular
(cellular slime Yes aggregate to a multicellular slug,
protistan amoebae
mould) cells specialising to form a dead
stalk and a fruiting body[18]
Cells, grouped into
Multicellular Mushroom- organs for specific Cell specialisation,
Yes
organism forming fungus functions (e.g. communication[22]
reproduction)

Permanent Male and female Male provides male gametes;

sexual Anglerfish permanently Yes female provides all other
partnership fastened together functions[18]
Fungus provides structure,
Organisms of absorbs water and minerals; alga
Mutualism Lichen Yes
different species
photosynthesises[18]

Zooids joined Organism specialisation; inter-

Joined colony Siphonophore Yes
together organism signalling[8]
Organism specialisation (many
Individuals living
Superorganism Ant colony Yes ants do not reproduce); inter-
together
organism signalling[23]

Samuel Díaz‐Muñoz and colleagues (2016) accept Queller and Strassmann's view that organismality can
be measured wholly by degrees of cooperation and of conflict. They state that this situates organisms in
evolutionary time, so that organismality is context dependent. They suggest that highly integrated life
forms, which are not context dependent, may evolve through context-dependent stages towards complete
unification.[24]

Boundary cases

Viruses
Viruses are not typically considered to be organisms, because they are incapable of autonomous
reproduction, growth, metabolism, or homeostasis. Although viruses have a few enzymes and molecules
like those in living organisms, they have no metabolism of their own; they cannot synthesize the organic
compounds from which they are formed. In this sense, they are similar to inanimate matter.[7] Viruses
have their own genes, and they evolve. Thus, an argument that
viruses should be classed as living organisms is their ability to
undergo evolution and replicate through self-assembly. However,
some scientists argue that viruses neither evolve nor self-
reproduce. Instead, viruses are evolved by their host cells,
meaning that there was co-evolution of viruses and host cells. If
host cells did not exist, viral evolution would be impossible. As
for reproduction, viruses rely on hosts' machinery to replicate. The
discovery of viruses with genes coding for energy metabolism and A virus such as tobacco mosaic
protein synthesis fuelled the debate about whether viruses are virus is not a cell; it contains only its
living organisms, but the genes have a cellular origin. Most likely, genetic material, and a protein coat.

they were acquired through horizontal gene transfer from viral

hosts.[7]

Comparison of cellular organisms and viruses[7]

Capability Cellular organism Virus

Metabolism Yes No, rely entirely on host cell

Growth Yes No, just self-assembly

Reproduction Yes No, rely entirely on host cell

Store genetic information about

DNA DNA or RNA
themselves

Yes: mutation, recombination, natural Yes: high mutation rate, natural

Able to evolve
selection selection

There is an argument for viewing viruses as cellular organisms. Some researchers perceive viruses not as
virions alone, which they believe are just spores of an organism, but as a virocell - an ontologically
mature viral organism that has cellular structure.[25] Such virus is a result of infection of a cell and shows
all major physiological properties of other organisms: metabolism, growth, and reproduction, therefore,
life in its effective presence.[12][26]

Organism-like colonies
The philosopher Jack A. Wilson examines some boundary cases to demonstrate that the concept of
organism is not sharply defined.[8] In his view, sponges, lichens, siphonophores, slime moulds, and
eusocial colonies such as those of ants or naked molerats, all lie in the boundary zone between being
definite colonies and definite organisms (or superorganisms).[8]
 Jack A. Wilson's analysis of the similar organism-like nature of siphonophores
and jellyfish[8]
Function Colonial siphonophore Jellyfish
Buoyancy Top of colony is gas-filled Jelly

Nectophores co-ordinate to pump Body pulsates to

Propulsion
water pump water

Palpons and gastrozooids ingest Tentacles trap prey,

Feeding
prey, feed other zooids pass it to mouth
Functional Single functional
Single functional individual
structure individual

Composition Many zooids, possibly individuals Many cells

Apolemia, a colonial
siphonophore that functions
as a single individual

Synthetic organisms
Scientists and bio-engineers are experimenting with different types
of synthetic organism, from chimaeras composed of cells from
two or more species, cyborgs including electromechanical limbs,
hybrots containing both electronic and biological elements, and
other combinations of systems that have variously evolved and
been designed.[27]

An evolved organism takes its form by the partially understood

mechanisms of evolutionary developmental biology, in which the
genome directs an elaborated series of interactions to produce Insect cyborg
successively more elaborate structures. The existence of chimaeras
and hybrids demonstrates that these mechanisms are
"intelligently" robust in the face of radically altered circumstances at all levels from molecular to
organismal.[27]

Synthetic organisms already take diverse forms, and their diversity will increase. What they all have in
common is a teleonomic or goal-seeking behaviour that enables them to correct errors of many kinds so
as to achieve whatever result they are designed for. Such behaviour is reminiscent of intelligent action by
organisms; intelligence is seen as an embodied form of cognition.[27]

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External links
"The Tree of Life" (http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html). Tree of Life Web Project.
"Indexing the world's known species" (http://www.species2000.org/). Species 2000.

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