This article is about non-cellular life. For the syncytial and plasmodial forms of cellular life sometimes referred to as “acellular”, see Multinucleate.
Non-cellular life, or acellular life is life that exists without a cellular structure for at least part of its life cycle.[1] Historically, most (descriptive) definitions of life postulated that a living organism must be composed of one or more cells,[2] but this is no longer considered necessary, and modern criteria allow for forms of life based on other structural arrangements.[3][4][5]
The primary candidates for non-cellular life are viruses. Some biologists consider viruses to be living organisms, but others do not. Their primary objection is that no known viruses are capable of autonomous reproduction: they must rely on cells to copy them.[1][6][7][8][9]
Engineers sometimes use the term “artificial life” to refer to software and robots inspired by biological processes, but these do not satisfy any biological definition of life.
microbiologist India 