TraitMech

TraitMech › ECOLOGY

ixotrophy

traitmech:000698 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A trophic-ecology phenotype in which filamentous bacteria capture microbial prey on their cell surface and kill the captured cells to obtain prey-derived nutrients.

Trait evidence (3)

  • DOI:10.1126/science.adp0614
    Single-cell analyses with stable isotope-labeled prey revealed that prey components are taken up by the attacker.

    Lien et al. 2024, PMID:39418385, scientific Abstract, not the separate article summary; directly matched source-qualified MED text. Introduction and contact/capture Results support the surface-trapping differentia. Nutrient-uptake Results, culture, killing, imaging and Raman Methods, Discussion and actual Figures 1, 5 and 6 read. Raman labeling supports uptake from killed prey; Figure 6 is a model, not independent flux data. On solid surfaces, gliding can establish contact without flagellar trapping; this record denotes a capability, not a mandatory sequence for every feeding event. Other figures, supplements and movies not fully assessed. Author-hosted published full text: https://stockerlab.ethz.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/183.Lien-et-al_Science_Kang.pdf. MED linked a commentary and preprint, not a correction/retraction; publisher status page was inaccessible, so that check remains limited.

  • DOI:10.1007/s002489900052
    can subsist on other microbes and can even catch motile bacteria by their flagella before killing and digesting them.

    Lewin 1997, PMID:9337418, directly retrieved publisher Abstract. The subject is Saprospira grandis; supports prey capture, killing and nutrition, not universal dependence on flagellated prey. MED metadata matched title and DOI but exposed no abstract; do not report an abstract-resolver verification for this quote. Full text, figures and strain provenance were unavailable. Publisher page and qualified MED metadata showed no linked correction/retraction at access, not proof none exists. Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s002489900052.

  • DOI:10.1099/mic.0.000158
    The ability of cells to aggregate or adhere is thought to be a significant initial step in ixotrophy.

    Furusawa et al. 2015, PMID:26306656, scientific Abstract directly read at the publisher and matched qualified MED metadata. CCB-QB1 adhesion/capture assays support an initial interaction, not by themselves nutrient transfer. Calcium and acidic polysaccharide interpretations are model-specific, not defining requirements. Full-text delivery failed; Methods, figures and supplement remain unread. Publisher page and MED record exposed no linked correction/retraction. Authors and CCB-QB1 material overlap with 2024, so these are not independent-group replications. Source: https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.000158.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1126/science.adp0614

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.

  • Aureispira sp. CCB-QB1 NCBITaxon:1313421 DOI:10.1126/science.adp0614 Qualified to the ixotrophy-positive WT studied with Vibrio campbellii, not all culture derivatives or the entire genus. The primary scientific Abstract at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25468060/ (DOI:10.1016/j.margen.2014.10.006) directly identifies CCB-QB1 as an isolate from the coastal area of Penang, Malaysia; this is provenance, not another predation experiment. NCBI identifier/name independently checked on 2026-10-11: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=1313421. The 2024 IS-inactivated predator derivatives are not the exemplar.

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 prey capture and nutrition distinct from attachment alone.

CURATION TODO OPEN ixotrophy-boundaries-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.

Use phenotype METPO:1000059 as parent. Predatory bacterium traitmech:000054 requires bacterial prey, whereas ixotrophy literature also includes nonbacterial microbial prey. Epibiotic bacterial predation traitmech:000697 denotes attached external growth on bacterial prey and is not an exact synonym or proven broader parent. Heng et al. 2026 (DOI:10.1007/s00248-026-02864-6), publisher Abstract only, calls ixotrophy epibiotic in a broader usage; retain that attribution without equating the scopes. Gliding, aggregation, adhesive surfaces, antagonism and prey lysis alone do not establish ixotrophy. No universal prey range, obligate dependence or organism-level disjointness is asserted. No exact external xrefs or synonyms assigned pending authority and scope reconciliation.

Ground taxon-specific machinery before adding causal edges.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN ixotrophy-mechanism-grounding · 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 2024 CCB-QB1 study provides a mechanism lead, but a protein-resolved graph and protein examples are deferred, not claimed absent. Verify exact accession identities, taxon pairing and all relevant figures/supplements before curating those edges. Do not infer this feeding phenotype from secretion-system genes, profile matches or an insertion sequence alone, or generalize the CCB-QB1 machinery to every ixotrophic lineage. Environmental sequence covariation is not direct field predation.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Added ixotrophy beneath phenotype with three DOI-backed sources, short checked snippets and a WT-qualified CCB-QB1 example. Ignored/hidden main/worktree and pending-PR checks support 000698 and v574 block 1065100-1065199. Existing records unchanged; mechanism grounding and exact mappings remain open. Timestamp records the observed UTC curation decision.

Recorded curation sessions

  • · codex
    • CREATE — Add evidence-backed ixotrophy phenotype

      Added PROPOSED traitmech:000698 with three DOI-backed evidence snippets, WT-qualified Aureispira sp. CCB-QB1 and v574 METPO proposal. Phenotype parent avoids bacterial-prey-only scope; surface capture is a capability, not a required sequence for every feeding event. Direct abstracts and selected 2024 full-text sections/figures inspected; access and notice-check limits retained. All 20 focused writer tests and dry run passed before apply. Existing records unchanged; no causal graph or exact mapping asserted. Ignored/hidden duplicate and full-block reservation checks completed across main, registered worktrees, pending PRs and upstream sources; recheck before publishing.

    Read this curation session