TY - JOUR
T1 - High impact of bacterial predation on cyanobacteria in soil biocrusts
AU - Bethany, Julie
AU - Johnson, Shannon Lynn
AU - Garcia-Pichel, Ferran
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to acknowledge support from the Eyring Materials Center and the Biodesign Institute Core facilities at Arizona State University. Financial support for this research was provided by NSF grants DEB 2129537 and ENG 1449501 JB was supported the BYU Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, the Friends of the Sonoran Desert, and Jornada Basin Long Term Ecological Research Site (DEB 2025166).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-32427-5
DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-32427-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 35977950
AN - SCOPUS:85135972834
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 13
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
IS - 1
M1 - 4835
ER -