{"id":29,"date":"2023-10-02T17:47:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T17:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/?p=29"},"modified":"2023-11-02T20:44:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T20:44:12","slug":"virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/virus\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering virus\u2019s impact on food webs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maybe it was turning the tables on a virus during a pandemic, but Nebraska ecologist John DeLong\u2019s groundbreaking discovery went, well, viral.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were shocked,\u201d said DeLong, associate professor of biological sciences. \u201cWe understood it was an important observation, but we didn\u2019t expect this global wave of notice.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept is simple. <\/span>DeLong and his team discovered <\/span>that Halteria<\/em>, single-celled ciliates found in lakes,<\/span> can survive and reproduce<\/span> solely on a diet of virus, <\/span>a process termed virovory.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their finding, however, is rewriting our understanding of food web structures. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Drone-captured image of algae growing on a lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That some freshwater microbes snack on viruses has been known and isn\u2019t surprising; they\u2019re full of nutrients. That a ciliate can thrive on an abundant virus suggests virovory has population-level implications, enough to send carbon and other nutrients out of the microbial milieu and up the food chain.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeLong\u2019s discovery began after meeting renowned Nebraska virologist James Van Etten and others studying chloroviruses, which infect algae. DeLong brought an ecological perspective to their collaboration.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Collecting water samples<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Algae covers this Nebraska lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chloroviruses\u2019 numerous ecological mysteries keep the team intrigued, including discovering that certain microbes seek them out.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t sound like a good idea. As soon as the notion that they\u2019re being eaten crossed my mind, I was in a position to think of (microbes) as predators,\u201d said DeLong, who specializes in predator-prey interactions. \u201cThat\u2019s it right there: When a predator eats something, that\u2019s how energy flows in food webs.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laboratory experiments determined Halteria<\/em> is particularly keen. After isolating Halteria<\/em> with chloroviruses, the team demonstrated the ciliate continued to thrive.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
John DeLong takes water samples from Wildwood Lake, located northwest of Lincoln, Nebraska.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Previously, scientists believed aquatic viruses suppress nutrient flow by breaking down hosts into particles for other microorganisms. As prey, however, chloroviruses\u2019 global abundance could be significant.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big goal now is to assess the scale of carbon movement through the food web that can be attributed to virovory,\u201d DeLong said. \u201cIt could be a massive amount of carbon moving into (ciliates) and into crustaceans and into fish.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An award from the National Science Foundation\u2019s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, known as EPSCoR, funded this work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe it was turning the tables on a virus during a pandemic, but Nebraska ecologist John DeLong\u2019s groundbreaking discovery went, well, viral.   \u201cWe were shocked,\u201d said DeLong, associate professor of biological sciences. \u201cWe understood it was an important observation, but we didn\u2019t expect this global wave of notice.\u201d   The concept is simple. DeLong and his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[130,147,133,142,149,141,12,145,148,146,143],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","tag-biological-sciences","tag-chloroviruses","tag-ecology-and-evolution","tag-food-web","tag-halteria","tag-john-delong","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-nsf-established-program-to-stimulate-competitive-research","tag-predator-prey-interactions","tag-virology","tag-virovory"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":681,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}