SCIENTISTS DISCOVER ORGANISMS THAT EAT VIRUSES
It’s been a banner year for viruses. One of the nasty little things has shut down large parts of human civilization, knocked the economy senseless, killed more than a million, and sickened countless more.
After all that, it’s nice to see something take a bite out of viruses instead of vice versa. To wit, scientists just announced the discovery of two organisms that eats viruses — the first credible finding of that type of creature.
“Our data show that many protist cells contain DNA of a wide variety of non-infectious viruses but not bacteria, strong evidence that they are feeding on viruses rather than on bacteria,” said corresponding author Ramunas Stepanauskas, director of the Single Cell Genomics Center at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, in a statement. “That came as a big surprise, as these findings go against the currently predominant views of the role of viruses and protists in the marine food webs.”
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, identifies two single-cell organisms, both found off the coast of Maine, that the researchers say can gobble down viruses.
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