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Anderson R, Kjelleberg S, McDougald D, Jürgens K
Species-specific patterns in the vulnerability of carbon-starved bacteria to protist grazing
Heterotrophic bacteria under severe carbon limitation can enter into a specific adaptative state with strongly reduced cell sizes and a high resistance to abiotic stress factors. In the present study, using predator–prey model systems, Anderson et al. demonstrate that this ‘carbon-starvation response’ can, for some bacterial strains, strongly reduce vulnerability to protist grazing. For other strains, however, grazing pressure remains the same as when non-starved, despite a reduction in cell size. Thus, the complex changes induced by carbon starvation appear to differently influence bacterial vulnerability to a model grazer.
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