Blackburn N, Fenchel T, Mitchell J
N. Blackburn and T. Fenchel, Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, 3000 Helsingor, Denmark. J. Mitchell, School of Biology, Flinders University, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia.
Science. 1998 Dec 18;282(5397):2254-6. doi: 10.1126/science.282.5397.2254.
Are nutrients available to microbial communities in micropatches long enough to influence growth and competition? And what are the sources of such patches? To answer these questions, the swimming behavior of chemotactic bacteria in seawater samples was examined. Clusters of bacteria formed in conjunction with cell lysis and excretion by protozoa. These point sources of nutrients spread into spherical patches a few millimeters in diameter and sustained swarms of bacteria for about 10 minutes. Within that time, a large proportion of the nutrients was encountered by bacteria, chemotactic and nonchemotactic alike. Chemotaxis is advantageous for bacteria using patches over a certain size.
微斑块中的营养物质可供微生物群落利用的时间是否足够长，从而影响其生长和竞争？这些斑块的来源是什么？为了回答这些问题，研究了趋化细菌在海水样本中的游动行为。细菌聚集是与原生动物的细胞裂解和排泄同时发生的。这些营养物质的点源扩散成直径几毫米的球形斑块，并使细菌群体持续约10分钟。在这段时间内，很大一部分营养物质被细菌遇到，无论其是否具有趋化性。对于利用一定大小斑块的细菌来说，趋化作用是有利的。
