Scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln say a species of freshwater plankton is the first known organism that can survive on a diet of viruses, Science Alert reports..

Viruses are often accidentally introduced into the food of a wide range of organisms and may even " But in order to become a complete food, they must provide the body that eats them with a large amount of energy and nutrients..

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The microbe Halteria is a protozoan that " Experiments have shown that it can not only consume chloroviruses added to the environment. The giant virus became the source of its growth and population increase.

Research scientists lasted three years. It was based on the assumption that the huge number of viruses and microorganisms that can be found in water may well lead to the fact that the former are eaten by the latter.. Inside viruses are something the body needs, including amino acids, nucleic acids, lipids, nitrogen and phosphorus..

A team of researchers collected pond water samples and added chloroviruses to it to find protozoan species that can feed on them.. As a result, they focused their attention on Halteria and Paramecium, which thrived in the water..

Paramecium, although they fed on viruses, did not change in number and size, but Halteria used viruses as nutrients.. The ciliate population grew by about 15 times in two days, while the virus population decreased by 100 times.

Scientists use fluorescent green dye to mark chlorovirus DNA before it was eaten by plankton. Thanks to this, it was possible to confirm that the organisms did indeed eat viruses, since their vacuoles - the microbial analogue of stomachs - glowed green..