451: Phototrophs Fancy Floating Feasts

This episode: Despite being photosynthetic, some kinds of algae
engage in predatory behavior, hunting and consuming live
bacteria!


Download Episode (4.9 MB, 7.1 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus 1


 


News item

 


Takeaways




Although most of them are microscopic, algae perform a
significant portion of the photosynthesis on the planet,
because there are so many of them. But even though
photosynthesis seems like a reliable way of acquiring
energy, there are conditions under which even algae benefit
from gathering energy and nutrients from other organisms.
This is called phagomixotrophy, when algae hunt and consume
bacteria.


 


In this study, scientists developed fluorescence methods
for detecting and studying this predation in a group of
algal phytoplankton that's not well-studied, prasinophytes.
They found that all five species they looked at engaged in
bacterivory under nutrient-depleted conditions, and that
they preferred live bacteria to killed ones.



 
Journal Paper:
Bock NA, Charvet S, Burns J, Gyaltshen Y, Rozenberg A, Duhamel
S, Kim E. 2021. Experimental identification and in silico
prediction of bacterivory in green algae. ISME J.



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com. Thanks for listening!


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