Halteria, first recorded by scientists as far back as the 17th century, are common planktonic ciliates found in many freshwater environments.

(taken from Wikipedia public domain)

[Compiled Chen Chengliang/Comprehensive Report] It is very common for organisms to form food chains. Plants, meat, algae, insects and bacteria are all eaten by different organisms. Now scientists have discovered for the first time that some organisms use viruses as food.

Since different types of mutated viruses have emerged one after another, this discovery is undoubtedly a major advance for scientific research.

Because viruses are so ubiquitous, organisms sometimes eat them by accident, but John DeLong, a researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, wanted to find out whether there are microbes that actively eat viruses, and whether such Whether diets support individual physiological growth and population growth.

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"They consist of nucleic acids, a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus, and they're very good substances, and all living things should want to eat them. Of course, there must be something that learns how to eat these really good ingredients."

To test this hypothesis, DeLong and his team collected pond water samples, isolated different microbes, and then added a large number of chloroviruses, foreign media "Atlas News" reported.

Over the next few days, the team tracked the population sizes of the viruses and other microbes to see if the latter were eating the former.

Sure enough, a particular microbe that seemed to be eating the viruses was a type of ciliate called a Halteria.

In the experiment, Delong and his colleagues found that in the extracted pond water experiment samples, Halteria grew significantly within 2 days, nearly 15 times more than the original, while the level of green algae virus in the samples decreased. In contrast, in the control samples without green algal viruses, Halteria was no different from the initial state.

In a follow-up test, the team used fluorescent dyes to label the chlorophyll virus DNA and found that the Halteria cells quickly began to glow, which helped confirm that the Halteria were indeed consuming the virus.

Delong said that such a discovery does have a major impact and change on the known ecology of the entire food chain; it is understood that Halteria was first observed by scientists back to the 17th century, and it is a common species that can be found in many freshwater environments. Planktonic ciliates.

The study was published in the international authoritative journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" ​​(PNAS).