virivorous en · ADJ
Etymology
From viri- + -vorous.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Involving or sustained by the consumption of viruses.
Finally, the higher increase of VA in comparison to HBA in hypersaline systems was probably related to a higher resistance of halophages to environmental virucidal agents and, to a lesser extent, due to a lack of virivorous nanoflagellates or ciliates.
2017, Junger et al., “Salinity Drives the Virioplankton Abundance but Not Production in Tropical Coastal Lagoons”, in Microbial Ecology, volume 75, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 52–63:The salt-forced extinction of potential virivorous nanoflagellates is a possible explanation, but the ability of these viruses to better resist ambient UV radiations is not unrealistic either.
2011, Bettarel et al., “Ecological traits of planktonic viruses and prokaryotes along a full-salinity gradient”, in FEMS Microbiology Ecology, volume 76, number 2, Oxford University Press, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 360–372:It is thus tempting to believe that virivorous organisms, like bacterivorous ones, should be able to optimize their food uptake by exploiting patches of high prey abundances.
2005, Bettarel et al., “Low consumption of virus-sized particles by heterotrophic nanoflagellates in two lakes of the French Massif Central”, in Aquatic Microbial Ecology, volume 39, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 205–209:If the researchers could prove that the microbes were growing by eating chlorovirus, they would have compelling evidence that these protists can sustain themselves with a virivorous lifestyle.
2023 January 17, Jasna Hodžić, ““Virivores” discovered: Microbes that survive on a virus-only diet”, in Big Think, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2023:
Coordinates
omnivorous · carnivorous · herbivorous