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epibiotic bacterial predation

traitmech:000697 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A predatory bacterial phenotype in which a bacterium kills and obtains nutrients from bacterial prey while attached and growing externally, without its cell body entering the prey cell.

Trait evidence (3)

  • DOI:10.1038/ismej.2013.164
    epibiotic, where they attach to the prey from outside.

    Pasternak et al. 2014, PMID:24088628, PMC3930308, Introduction; contiguous quotation defining the external predation strategy. Abstract, Introduction, culture/prey-range/electron-microscopy Methods, growth Results, Discussion and actual Figure 1 read. JSS and Micavibrio aeruginosavorus EPB observations support external feeding; genome comparisons are not functional proof. Do not make the paper's binary-division generalization defining: the 2024 JSS time-lapse study demonstrates nonbinary division. Other figures, genomic analyses and supplements not fully assessed. Full text: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3930308/.

  • DOI:10.1099/ijs.0.039701-0
    No periplasmic growth stage was observed and no bdelloplast was formed.

    Koval et al. 2013, PMID:22368169, directly read scientific Abstract on the publisher site and source-qualified MED metadata. JSS was isolated from sewage in London, Ontario, with Caulobacter crescentus prey; attached external predation left emptied cells. This supports natural strain provenance and noninvasive feeding, not its frequency in undisturbed sewage. Full text, figures and supplement unavailable to this review; no Methods claim imported. Publisher: https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.039701-0.

  • DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-48042-5
    Bdellovibrio exovorus is an obligate epibiotic predator that attaches on the prey cell surface, where it grows and proliferates.

    Santin et al. 2024, PMID:38678033, PMC11055950, scientific Abstract; direct contiguous match. Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, selected culture/killing/live-imaging/cryo-EM/statistics Methods and actual Figures 2-5 read; other Methods, actual Figures 1/6, supplements and movies not fully assessed. JSS time-lapse growth and prey-content loss support feeding, not direct molecular nutrient tracing. The 2025 correction DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-58758-7 (PMID:40234419, PMC12000597) was read: retain its qualified prey-range wording and removal of the S-layer-defense recommendation. It is not another independent experiment. Full corrected text: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11055950/.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1038/ismej.2013.164

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.

  • Pseudobdellovibrio exovorus NCBITaxon:453816 DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-48042-5 Qualified to JSS (ATCC BAA-2330 = DSM 25223), not every species member. Studied as Bdellovibrio exovorus on C. crescentus; the predator's natural sewage-isolate provenance and type-strain identity are stated in the primary Abstract at https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.039701-0. Some 2024 prey strains carry engineered labels or deletions; this natural-provenance qualification concerns the predator. NCBI species ID/name and JSS type material independently resolved on 2026-10-11: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=453816.

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 external feeding distinct from general surface association.

CURATION TODO OPEN epibiotic-predation-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.

Predatory bacterium traitmech:000054 supplies killing and nutrition; external attachment and growth supply the differentia. The broader METPO:1007093 epibiont phenotype does not require predation. Epibiosis, ectosymbiosis, ectoparasitism and vampirism are not asserted exact synonyms. The existing predation research report also calls wolf-pack Myxococcus feeding epibiotic; this record follows the attached-feeding sense of Pasternak et al., not every use of external killing. Attachment, prey lysis or sequence signatures alone are insufficient. Bacterial cannibalism traitmech:000626 concerns prey relatedness, an orthogonal axis. No organism-level disjointness is asserted. No exact xrefs or synonyms are assigned pending authority and scope reconciliation.

Resolve feeding machinery without generalizing model-specific observations.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN epibiotic-predation-mechanism-limits · 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. An external predator cell body does not exclude envelope-crossing feeding structures or secreted effectors. JSS imaging supports a feeding junction but does not identify its molecular machinery; fluorescence loss is not direct nutrient tracing. Comparative gene content is not functional causality. Do not require polar attachment, binary division, fixed progeny number, a universal prey range, or obligate dependence merely because particular models exhibit them. The corrected 2024 S-layer experiments concern tested prey backgrounds, not all predators or all S-layers. The 2013/2014 studies share authors and JSS material; three citations are not three independent laboratory replications.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Added external attached bacterial predation beneath predatory bacterium with three DOI-backed sources, checked snippets and a JSS-qualified example. Reserved v573 block 1065000-1065099 after ignored/hidden main/worktree and pending-PR checks. Corrected-paper scope retained; mechanisms and mappings remain open. Timestamp is the observed UTC decision.

Recorded curation sessions

  • · codex
    • CREATE — Add evidence-backed epibiotic bacterial predation

      Added PROPOSED traitmech:000697 beneath predatory bacterium with DOI:10.1038/ismej.2013.164, DOI:10.1099/ijs.0.039701-0 and DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-48042-5; all three carry directly checked snippets. The 2025 correction DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-58758-7 is context, not independent experimental evidence. Qualified NCBITaxon:453816 example to natural JSS; retained two OPEN discussions and deferred protein mechanisms/exact mappings. Ignored-and-hidden main/worktree and pending-PR checks supported local ID and v573 block 1065000-1065099. Guarded writer dry run and 23 focused tests passed before this history was scaffolded.

    Read this curation session