‘Vampire viruses’ discovered for first time on US soil

Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email

Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

A number of “vampire viruses” have been discovered in soil samples in Maryland and Missouri for the first time.

The existence of the eerily-nicknamed viruses has been known to researchers for decades, but this is the first time traces of the viruses have been discovered in the US.

Vampire viruses prey on other viruses to replicate themselves. These particular viruses are caused when a bacteriophage latches onto a soil-based virus’s neck and uses its “life” to survive on its own.

A team at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Washington University in St. Louis said this type of “vampire virus” can lead to the host virus becoming dormant.

They said whilst the vampire species can kill viruses that infect crops and livestock, they can also kill “good” viruses that are essential to the soil thriving and being healthy.

The team added that they have isolated the viruses in recent days.

UMBC biologist Tagide deCarvalho, the study’s lead author, said: “When I saw it, I was like, ‘I can’t believe this.’

“No one has ever seen a bacteriophage – or any other virus– attach to another virus.”

The study was published in the Journal of the International Society of Microbial Ecology.