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bacterial mycophagy

traitmech:000696 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A trophic-ecology phenotype in which a bacterium actively obtains nutrients from living fungi or oomycetes and uses them for its own growth.

Trait evidence (3)

  • DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02325.x
    phenotypic behaviours that make available nutrients from living fungi and allow the conversion of living fungal biomass into bacterial biomass.

    Leveau and Preston 2008, PMID:18086226, section I, p. 860 (author PDF page 2), visually checked contiguous quotation. Definition authority, not experimental replication. Summary, section I, strategy overview and selected diagnostic passages in section III read; remaining review and referenced experiments not comprehensively assessed. Section I explicitly includes oomycetes while acknowledging they are not true fungi. Section III requires growth controls and distinguishes inferred nutrient acquisition from direct flux measurement. Author full text: https://leveau.faculty.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/220/2015/05/Leveau2008.pdf. DOI AND SRC:MED metadata matched PMID, title and DOI on 2026-10-11.

  • DOI:10.1099/ijs.0.02920-0
    All Ter isolates proliferated in sand when hyphae of the fungi C. globosum, F. culmorum or M. hiemalis invaded.

    de Boer et al. 2004, PMID:15143036, Results, p. 860 (PDF page 4), visually checked quotation. Methods tested all isolates against intact living hyphae, using plate counts at three weeks corrected for uninoculated controls. Growth is indirect nutritional evidence, not isotope-traced transfer. Heat-fixed-hypha adhesion is a separate observation. Abstract, Introduction, Methods, relevant Results and taxonomic descriptions read; pages 4/7 visually inspected; supplement unread. Author full text: https://leveau.faculty.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/220/2015/05/deBoer2004.pdf. EXT_ID:15143036 AND SRC:MED matched source, ID, title and DOI on 2026-10-11.

  • DOI:10.1038/ismej.2008.97
    The growth of collimonads did not cause a significant reduction in the Absidia biomass.

    Hoppener-Ogawa et al. 2009, PMID:18923455, scientific Abstract, directly matched. Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Table 1 and actual Figures 1/2 read; Figure 3 and supplement unread. Indigenous soil populations and a four-strain sand mixture grew with invading fungus; this is not individual strain proof or direct nutrient tracing. Nonsignificant biomass loss does not establish no fitness cost. Methods samples at three weeks, whereas Figure 2 caption names two and three; no time-specific quantitative claim adopted. Overlapping authors with 2004, not independent-group replication. Author full text: https://leveau.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/220/2015/05/HoppenerOgawa2009.pdf. EXT_ID:18923455 AND SRC:MED matched source, ID, title and DOI on 2026-10-11.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02325.x

Parent traits (1)

kg-microbe context

No kg-microbe node embedding matched this record in the 2026-04-25 deepwalk.

Canonical examples (1)

Organisms cited as exemplars of this trait. Taxon ids are NCBITaxon and link out to the NCBI record.

  • Collimonas fungivorans NCBITaxon:158899 DOI:10.1099/ijs.0.02920-0 Qualified to natural dune-soil isolate Ter6 (type strain, NCCB 100033 = LMG 21973), not every species member. Primary Methods establish provenance and hyphal-growth testing; species description on p. 863 identifies Ter6. Provenance: https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.02920-0. NCBI species ID/name and Ter6 type material independently resolved on 2026-10-11: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=158899. Do not assign all 22 Ter isolates to this species from the 2004 circumscription.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (2)

Open questions attached to this trait. Seeded by just knowledge-gap-scan and curated; see the corpus-wide index.

Resolve exact mappings without conflating trophic endpoints.

CURATION TODO OPEN bacterial-mycophagy-scope-and-mappings · raised by codex · 2026-10-11

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

Follow Leveau and Preston's active nutritional definition and explicit oomycete scope, without classifying oomycetes as true fungi or asserting experimentally demonstrated feeding on every target group. Merely consuming passive leaks or tissue dead through unrelated causes is excluded. Fungal inhibition, lysis, chitinase activity or a sequence annotation alone is insufficient. Killing and obligate fungal dependence are not required. Predatory bacterium traitmech:000054 requires bacterial prey; saprotrophy traitmech:000055 concerns dead material; parasitism traitmech:000043 requires host harm; phagotrophy traitmech:000628 requires particle ingestion. None is an established broader parent here. No organism-level disjointness is asserted. Unqualified mycophagy, fungivory and mycetophagy also cover nonbacterial organisms and are not exact synonyms. No exact xref or synonym assigned pending authority/scope reconciliation.

Resolve active nutrient acquisition and taxon-specific mechanisms.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN bacterial-mycophagy-mechanisms-and-assays · raised by codex · 2026-10-11

Not yet attached to a section of this record — a curator sets attaches_to (e.g. causal_graphs#some_edge) so the gap shows beside the mechanism it concerns.

Causal graphs and protein examples are deferred, not claimed absent. Separate fungal damage, nutrient release and bacterial assimilation; require functional evidence and taxon-paired accessions before encoding protein mechanisms. CommunityMech CommunityMech:000364 led to DOI:10.1093/ismejo/wrag201 (PMID:42523014, PMC13615538). Its Abstract, antagonistic-assay Methods and mycophagy Results/Discussion passages were read: CFU after five days with sclerotia is compared with glass beads. This is a follow-up lead, not counted evidence of active feeding rather than released-nutrient consumption. Figures and supplement remain unread; no additional canonical taxon or independent replication is inferred from the assay name.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Added bacterial mycophagy beneath phenotype with three DOI-backed sources, checked short snippets and a Ter6-qualified canonical example. Ignored-and-hidden main/worktree/open-PR checks support 000696 and v572 block 1064900-1064999. Existing records unchanged. Mechanisms and mappings remain open. Timestamp records observed UTC curation decision.

Recorded curation sessions

  • · codex
    • CREATE — Add evidence-backed bacterial mycophagy

      Created PROPOSED traitmech:000696 beneath phenotype using the directly read Leveau and Preston definition and de Boer 2004/Hoppener-Ogawa 2009 experiments, three short checked snippets, and NCBI-resolved Ter6-qualified Collimonas fungivorans. Preserved active nutrition versus inhibition, passive exudates and dead biomass; killing is not required. Reserved v572 METPO:1064900-1064999 after ignored-and-hidden worktree and pending-PR checks. Mechanisms, exact mappings and a newer sclerotia assay remain qualified discussions; no existing trait or protected spore germination changed. Guarded writer dry run and 21 focused tests passed before apply.

    Read this curation session
  • · codex
    • AUDIT — Correct focused-test count in bacterial mycophagy history

      Correction to history/records/bacterial_mycophagy/2026-10-11T102255Z-codex-d97695.yaml: the focused command PYTHONPATH=src .venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/test_add_bacterial_mycophagy_trait.py -q reported 20 passed in 2.36s, not 21. The original remains intact; this correction changes no TraitRecord or scientific claim.

    Read this curation session