Humanity loves good villains. as evil as a virusThey are virtually invisible, brutal parasites that take over our own living cells and twist their biological essence into more viral soldiers to continue their carnage.
But viruses play a very important role. ecosystemThey are like the apex predator of the savannah, the lions that dwindle in numbers to keep the gazelle population down.
This is the first time that a virus-only diet has been shown to be sufficient for the survival of microbes, which the researchers call “virovory,” meaning “viral feeding.”
For example, simple aquatic plants called algae can start reproducing uncontrollably. algae bloomSome flowers are poisonous and can suffocate beaches and lakes and suffocate wildlife. seen from spaceBloom can occur naturally, but a variety of human activities can cause or exacerbate bloom, including nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff and sewage discharges.
Then comes the chlorovirus. Named after the Greek word for “green,” these are large species of viruses found in freshwater environments around the world. And they love to infect algae. Chloroviruses actually play an important role in controlling algal blooms.
Nevertheless, when the virus kills the algae cells, they pop like wet balloons, exhaling all the nutrients hidden inside into the water, where they are swallowed whole by other microbes. is called a “viral shunt”, meaning that other organisms further up the food chain cannot benefit from this nutrient cycle.
they found it Halteria spAs well as devouring the virus, the virus had enough nutritional value to reproduce and reproduce.
However, a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provide evidence that chloroviruses are not only regularly eaten, they are also nutritious and have broad implications for our thinking about the food chain and the carbon-earth cycle. The paper was co-authored by James Van Etten, Professor of Plant Pathology. first discovered Chlorovirus in 1980.
To study this, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln scooped up pond water containing a microbe called Halteria spThese tiny creatures are called ciliates because they are covered with tiny hair-like projections called cilia. Ciliates were then given a heaping portion of chlorovirus, and some cultures were given nothing as controls.
they found it Harteria sp. Beyond just devouring viruses, viruses had enough nutritional value to reproduce and reproduce. To prove that this is actually happening, they labeled the viral DNA with a green fluorescent dye. And when they examined the “stomach” (technically called the vacuole) of these microbes, they found a glowing virus inside. This is the first time that a virus-only diet has been shown to be sufficient for the survival of microbes, which the researchers call “virovory,” meaning “viral feeding.”
“Multiplying the number of viruses, the number of ciliates, and a rough estimate of the amount of water gives us this massive energy transfer (up the food chain),” said John DeLonge, lead author of the study. I’m here. An associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said: statementHe and his colleagues estimate that ciliates in small ponds can eat 10 trillion viruses a day. “If this is happening on the scale we think it is, it should completely change the way we look at the global carbon cycle,” said DeLonge.
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In fact, this is the missing relationship in the food chain model. The authors argue that “current food web models lack important interactions,” but there is surprisingly little research in this area.
“I had the motive to decide if this was weird, or if it was appropriate,” DeLong said.
To learn more, DeLong would like to repeat this experiment outside the lab.The first bivore discovery is really an underscore We know very little about the microbes that surround us, not to mention their evolution. Virus-eating organisms exert selective pressure, causing genetic changes over time. Understanding this relationship not only has a profound impact on how nutrients cycle through ecosystems, but also reveals some of the fundamental mechanisms of life itself.
