School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
Nat Commun. 2022 Aug 17;13(1):4835. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32427-5.
Diverse bacteria lead a life as pathogens or predators of other bacteria in many environments. However, their impact on emerging ecological processes in natural settings remains to be assessed. Here we describe a novel type of obligate, intracellular predatory bacterium of widespread distribution that preys on soil cyanobacteria in biocrusts. The predator, Candidatus Cyanoraptor togatus, causes localized, cm-sized epidemics that are visible to the naked eye, obliterates cyanobacterial net primary productivity, and severely impacts crucial biocrust properties like nitrogen cycling, dust trapping and moisture retention. The combined effects of high localized morbidity and areal incidence result in decreases approaching 10% of biocrust productivity at the ecosystem scale. Our findings show that bacterial predation can be an important loss factor shaping not only the structure but also the function of microbial communities.
在许多环境中，不同的细菌可以作为病原体或其他细菌的捕食者生存。然而，它们对自然环境中新兴生态过程的影响仍有待评估。在这里，我们描述了一种新型的专性、内共生捕食性细菌，它广泛分布于生物结皮中，以土壤蓝细菌为食。捕食者 Candidatus Cyanoraptor togatus 导致局部、厘米大小的流行病，肉眼可见，消灭了蓝细菌的净初级生产力，并严重影响了关键的生物结皮特性，如氮循环、灰尘捕获和水分保持。高局部发病率和面积发病率的综合影响导致生态系统尺度上生物结皮生产力下降近 10%。我们的研究结果表明，细菌捕食可以成为一种重要的损失因素，不仅影响微生物群落的结构，而且影响其功能。
