Scientists have discovered a new type of organism that literally eats viruses. Known as virovors, these organisms do not accidentally eat viruses. These organisms make a special effort to maintain a diet that includes viruses.
The discovery of virus-eating organisms came as University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher John DeLong set out to see if microbes were actively eating viruses. DeLong and his team collected samples from pond water for this purpose and isolated different microbes in the water. Next, they added chlorovirus, a freshwater virus that infects green algae.
They then watched as a particular microbe called Halteria began to eat the virus. Also, in water samples that did not offer other food sources for Halteria, the microbe grew about 15 times in two days, eating only the chlorovirus. More interestingly, no growth of Halteria was seen in the virus-free samples.
To further test the hypothesis that the organism ate the virus, the researchers added dyes to the chlorovirus DNA. Then they noticed that the Halteria cells were starting to glow. This confirmed that he really ate the virus to survive. These experiments later led the group to come up with a new term for these organisms – virovory.
Of course, it seems highly unlikely that Halteria is the only creature in this group. Therefore, the researchers plan to continue trying and searching for other organisms that can likewise eat viruses.
The researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Further research on this topic could help find organisms that can eat viruses found in the human body, and perhaps even offer us a new way to fight certain infections. With scientists finding ancient viruses, finding organisms that can eat them can be very helpful in keeping viruses under control.
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