Context: Researchers have found what may be the first-ever “virovore” or an organism which eats viruses. 

• The study was published last week, in the PNAS journal by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the United States, which found two plankton organisms named Halteria and Paramecium, can not only feed on viruses but also thrive by consuming them. 

• According to ScienceDirect, there are several other organisms which incidentally consume viruses, to be accounted for in the food chain and be described as virovory, the consumption should contribute a significant amount of energy and nutrients to its consumer which a species of Halteria does. 

Virovore

• A virovore is an organism which obtains energy and nutrients from the consumption of viruses. 

• Scientists were conducting research to find out whether any microbes actively eat viruses.

• They found a species of Halteria. These are microscopic ciliates that populate freshwater throughout the world. These can eat huge numbers of infectious chloroviruses. Both share an aquatic habitat.

Key significance of this finding

• This marks a first-of-its-kind finding which has shown that a virus-only diet, termed “virovory” is enough to fuel the physiological growth and even the population growth of an organism.

• Hence, these new findings may change human understanding of the role viruses play in the food chain at a microscopic level.