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collective bacterial predation

traitmech:000701 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A predatory bacterial phenotype in which cells act in coordinated multicellular groups to kill bacterial prey and obtain nutrients from the killed cells.

Trait evidence (2)

  • DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-41193-x
    Myxococcus xanthus forages and moves collectively to prey and feed on other bacterial species.

    Rombouts et al. 2023, PMID:37696789, PMC10495355, scientific abstract, not the separate editor summary. Identity checked with EXT_ID:37696789 AND SRC:MED plus matching title and DOI. Results on cell-state transitions, A/S motility, trail following and prey lysis, Discussion and relevant Methods were read directly. Figure 5 and Supplementary Table 1 (p. 12) were visually inspected. The table identifies DZ2 laboratory material and engineered reporters or motility mutants; the paper's wild-type designation does not establish an untouched natural isolate. The prey is E. coli MG1655 with HU-mCherry for the lysis readout. Figure 5 measures prey fluorescence loss relative to an uninvaded zone, not direct nutrient assimilation or individual fitness benefits. Motility perturbations support contributions to efficient predation in this assay, not universal group obligacy. Raw movies and source data were not independently reanalyzed. MED and Crossref exposed a preprint relationship, not a linked correction/retraction; none was identified on the retrieved publisher page. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41193-x.

  • DOI:10.1128/AEM.02286-19
    In addition to group hunting, individual M. xanthus cells are able to kill and lyse prey cells

    Zhang et al. 2020, PMID:31704687, PMC6974655, scientific ABSTRACT, not the separate IMPORTANCE text. Qualified MED identity and title/DOI checked. The PMC Results and Discussion subsections on post-killing behavior and conclusions, Methods strain table and tracking analysis were also read. This is primary counterevidence to obligate group-only killing: DK1622 cells can kill E. coli individually. Prey-fragment consumption inferences do not constitute a direct assimilation assay. The delta-aglZ analysis also included individuals in groups of two or three and is not uniformly a solitary-cell dataset. This paper is boundary evidence, not independent replication of the 2023 collective-motility experiment. MED and Crossref exposed no linked correction/retraction; publisher access returned HTTP 403, leaving publisher notice status unverified. Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6974655/.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-41193-x

Parent traits (1)

kg-microbe context

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

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (2)

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

Keep coordinated group feeding distinct from claims of obligatory cooperation.

CURATION TODO OPEN collective-predation-scope-and-cooperation · 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.

Predatory bacterium traitmech:000054 supplies killing and nutrition; coordinated multicellular predation supplies the differentia. Mere cell density, aggregation, motility or prey lysis without feeding is insufficient. This is a capability expressed by cells in a group context, not a claim that a lone cell displays a collective phenotype. It does not require every cell to attack one prey simultaneously or benefit equally. Solitary killing and collective feeding can coexist in the same organism; no obligate group dependence or disjointness is asserted. Cooperative predation and wolf-pack predation are not assigned exact synonym status: cooperation in an evolutionary fitness sense requires separate evidence. The 2023 scout/loner/swarm bins are analysis states, not distinct primary traits. Swarming motility traitmech:000062 is explicitly flagella-dependent; gliding METPO:1000706 and twitching traitmech:000061 do not require predation. Epibiotic, periplasmic and cytoplasmic predation classify predator location, not group organization. No exact xrefs or synonyms are assigned.

Resolve natural examples and mechanism breadth without inferring feeding from sequence.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN collective-predation-examples-and-mechanism · 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.

The directly inspected collective-imaging evidence concerns DZ2 laboratory material, engineered reporters and motility perturbations. Canonical examples remain unset pending natural material provenance and independently checked taxon identity. A- and S-motility contribute to the studied M. xanthus assay, but their combination is not imposed on every possible bearer of this trophic phenotype. A causal graph and protein examples are deferred until taxon-scoped machinery and mechanism boundaries are grounded. Motility genes, secretion systems, hydrolases or other sequence features alone do not establish coordinated prey consumption. Direct nutrient assimilation and individual fitness benefits require evidence beyond the reported fluorescence-loss readout. These limits are not evidence that collective predation is absent.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Added collective bacterial predation beneath predatory bacterium with DOI-backed collective-motility and solitary-killing evidence and two checked scientific-abstract snippets. Ignored/hidden main/worktree and pending-PR checks support 000701 and v577 block 1065400-1065499. Existing records unchanged; cooperation, natural examples and mechanism breadth remain explicitly bounded. Timestamp records the observed UTC curation decision.

Recorded curation sessions

  • · codex
    • CREATE — Add collective bacterial predation with explicit cooperation limits

      Added traitmech:000701 using Rombouts et al. 2023 DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-41193-x and Zhang et al. 2020 DOI:10.1128/AEM.02286-19. Two directly checked scientific-abstract snippets distinguish collective feeding from obligate cooperation or solitary-cell incapacity. Relevant Results and Methods, Figure 5 and the 2023 supplementary strain table were inspected; laboratory reporter evidence is not asserted a natural canonical example. Ignored/hidden worktree and complete open-PR checks support v577 block 1065400-1065499. Dry run and validated writer applied. No existing trait, including protected spore_germination, changed. Full validation and immutable adversarial review follow; no human scientific approval or upstream METPO acceptance is claimed.

    Read this curation session