Bacterivore

A bacterivore is an organism which obtains energy and nutrients primarily or entirely from the consumption of bacteria. The term is most commonly used to describe free-living, heterotrophic, microscopic organisms such as nematodes as well as many species of amoeba and numerous other types of protozoans, but some macroscopic invertebrates are also bacterivores, including sponges, polychaetes, and certain molluscs and arthropods. Many bacterivorous organisms are adapted for generalist predation on any species of bacteria, but not all bacteria are easily digested; the spores of some species, such as Clostridium perfringens, will never be prey because of their cellular attributes.

In microbiology

Bacterivores can sometimes be a problem in microbiology studies. For instance, when scientists seek to assess microorganisms in samples from the environment (such as freshwater), the samples are often contaminated with microscopic bacterivores, which interfere with the growing of bacteria for study. Adding cycloheximide can inhibit the growth of bacterivores without affecting some bacterial species,^[1] but it has also been shown to inhibit the growth of some anaerobic prokaryotes.^[2]

Examples of bacterivores

• Caenorhabditis elegans
• Ceriodaphnia quadrangula
• Diaphanosoma brachyura
• Vorticella
• Paramecium
• Paratrimastix pyriformis
• Many species of protozoa
• Many benthic meiofauna, e.g. gastrotrichs
• Springtails
• Many sponges, e.g. Aplysina aerophoba^[3]
• Many crustaceans
• Many polychaetes, e.g. feather duster worms
• Some marine molluscs

See also

• Microbivory

References

1. Ennis, H. L.; Lubin, M. (1964-12-11). "Cycloheximide: Aspects of Inhibition of Protein Synthesis in Mammalian Cells". Science. 146 (3650): 1474–1476. Bibcode:1964Sci...146.1474E. doi:10.1126/science.146.3650.1474. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 14208575. S2CID 22809638.
2. Tremaine, Sarah C. Mills, Aaron L. (1987). "Inadequacy of the Eucaryote Inhibitor Cycloheximide in Studies of Protozoan Grazing on Bacteria at the Freshwater-Sediment Interface". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 53 (8): 1969–72. Bibcode:1987ApEnM..53.1969T. doi:10.1128/AEM.53.8.1969-1972.1987. OCLC 679536002. PMC 204037. PMID 16347423.
3. Wehrl M, Steinert M, Hentschel U. Bacterial uptake by the marine sponge Aplysina aerophoba. Microb Ecol. 2007 Feb;53(2):355-65. doi: 10.1007/s00248-006-9090-4. PMID 17265004.

• Davies, Cheryl M. et al.: Survival of Fecal Microorganisms in Marine and Freshwater Sediments, 1995, PDF