It can eat up to 1 million viruses per day.Science and technology

There are plants that digest amphibians, algae that eat fish, and viruses that infect bacteria. However, some of the predator-prey relationships are largely unknown and may be essential to understanding life cycles.

These are bilibores. As the name suggests, they live off of viruses.

Although the term doesn’t officially exist yet, a group of American researchers have discovered two groups of microbes that are neither animals nor plants. not fungi – But they are also not simple bacteria. They are not the first virus-eating organisms to be identified, but they are apparently able to survive and thrive by eating viral material.

For the past three years, a group of researchers at the University of Nebraska has been looking at viruses from a different perspective, not as pathogens but as basic nutrients in their life cycle.

Next to aquatic bacteria, viruses are the most abundant organisms on earth. There are so many of them that it’s normal for any living thing to ingest them. I tried to prove that there are at least two kinds of animals.

“Several studies had already been documented on viral consumption,” DeLonge told EL PAÍS in an email. “But to our knowledge, this is the first time. [virus consumption] demonstrated in these two species. “

The two species studied are aquatic. Paramecium When Halteria spThey suspected they ate the virus, but they weren’t sure if they ate it by accident.DeLong’s team observed them in the lab under controlled conditions. Therefore, in small droplets obtained from ponds, they released large amounts of chlorovirus. It is a relatively large virus that infects algal chlorophyll in lakes and freshwater reservoirs throughout the globe.

After 24 hours, researchers carefully examined the droplets.Experimental results – published in scientific journals PNAS – showed up to a 100-fold reduction in the amount of virus in water in the presence of both species. What they needed to confirm was whether the organism actually ate the virus.

Using a staining technique (adding dye for contrast), they turned some of the viruses fluorescent. They then observed them and each Halteria sp. He was able to ingest between 10,000 and 1 million chloroviruses per day, and after he was exposed for 48 hours, they found that his Halteria sp. The amount of chlorovirus decreased significantly, but increased. Viral load decreased 100-fold in just two days, while protist populations that eat nothing but viruses increased an average of 15-fold over the same period.

“We think viruses are probably very nutritious and have high levels of protein and phosphorus,” explains DeLong. It is mentioned to contain nucleic acids, lipids and amino acids. In the case of chloroviruses, it may also contain carbon that they steal from the chlorophyll of algae.

Ecologist Joshua Weitz co-authored the latest research on virus content. Weitz, who leads a group of researchers at Georgia Tech, has also published several papers on the role of viral entities in the cycle of life.

In an email, Weitz argues that “viruses are potentially nutritious when they are engulfed by microbes that digest them and are not infected with the virus.” (DNA or RNA).

“Since the viral genome is relatively dense and the genetic material is rich in phosphorus, viruses have a higher phosphorus content than typical microorganisms. Therefore, they may have a nutritional bonus.” not.”

The fact that there are virus-eating microbes is forcing biologists to re-examine what they know about life cycles.Virus – when infected all kinds of creatures – Bursting, releasing organic matter and nutrients into the atmosphere. Now, as Weitz points out, “this work is an important step in improving our understanding of how viral particles move energy (and nutrients) up and down the microbial food web.” The role of viruses in the microbial food chain.

DeLong warns that quantifying the role of viruses as transmitters of energy and nutrients is not easy. But he sees the process as having many health potential.

“Multiplying the number of viruses, the number of ciliates, and the rough estimate of the amount of water yields an enormous amount of energy transfer (in the food chain).”

He estimates that small pond organisms can swallow 10 trillion viruses a day.

“If this is happening on the scale that we think it could happen, it should completely change the way we look at global carbon cycle“

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