[...lets split up... (OP)]

I was just wondering if a virus can be produced that can alter the genetics of a cell without destroying it in the end.

And can a virus replicate itself without causing the cell to be destroyed?

[RD]

“Viral elements are a large part of the genetic material of almost all organisms,” said Dr. Sharp, who won a Nobel Prize for elucidating details of our genetic code. Base for nucleic base, he said, “we humans are well over 50 percent viral.”

Scientists initially dismissed the viral elements in our chromosomes as so much tagalong “junk DNA.” But more recently some researchers have proposed that higher organisms have in fact co-opted viral genes and reworked them into the source code for major biological innovations, according to Luis P. Villarreal, director of the Center for Virus Research at the University of California, Irvine.

Some genes involved in the growth of the mammalian placenta, for example, have a distinctly viral character, as do genes underlying the recombinant powers of our adaptive immune system — precisely the part that helps us fight off viruses.

In fact, it may well have been through taking genomic tips from our viral tormentors that we became so adept at keeping them at bay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/science/08angi.html?_r=1&em&ex=1199941200&en=3bd96f63379d275d&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

[...lets split up... (OP)]

thanks

[backgroundwhitenoise]

I know that there is at least one category of virus that basically hijacks a bacteria cell, I cant quite remember the name of the virus but I know it lead to most of what we know about Deoxyribonucleic Acid and it also lead to discoveries involving the modification and cutting of DNA.

[Pseudogene]

I know that there is at least one category of virus that basically hijacks a bacteria cell, I cant quite remember the name of the virus but I know it lead to most of what we know about Deoxyribonucleic Acid and it also lead to discoveries involving the modification and cutting of DNA.

bactriophages, probably lambda which is E.coli specific.

[...lets split up... (OP)]

Do they destroy the cell or reproduce without doing so?

[Pseudogene]

Do they destroy the cell or reproduce without doing so?

They can be engineered in the lab so they only enter a certain part of their "life" cycle that prevents them causing lysis (killing the cells).

[...lets split up... (OP)]

Is lysis part of the reproduction of a virus or can it reproduce without it?

The reason i ask is i'm wondering if you can use viruses to alter the DNA of an entire body, and the first step to me seems to be not destroying the cell after replication.