TraitMech

TraitMech › ECOLOGY

periplasmic bacterial predation

traitmech:000699 · CLASS · PROPOSED

A predatory bacterial phenotype in which a bacterium enters the periplasm of a bacterial prey cell and grows and reproduces there using nutrients obtained by killing and consuming the prey.

Trait evidence (3)

  • DOI:10.1038/s42003-025-09010-x
    establishes itself in the prey periplasm, feeding on the prey’s cytoplasmic contents as a main nutrient source.

    Lai et al. 2025, PMID:41125861, PMC12546842, Introduction, second paragraph; the subject is B. bacteriovorus. Direct publisher HTML and Europe PMC full-text XML match. Scientific Abstract, Introduction, selected growth/exit Results and culture, sampling, time-lapse and statistics Methods, Discussion and actual Figures 1 and 4 read. Figure 1a is a lifecycle schematic, not direct imaging; Figure 4a includes WT exit measurements. Other figures and supplements not fully assessed. Publisher and MED showed no linked notice; MED linked the earlier preprint, not a correction. Published source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09010-x.

  • DOI:10.1128/JB.00914-10
    Nutrients for the replication of Bdellovibrio bacteria come entirely from the digestion of the single invaded bacterium

    Fenton et al. 2010, PMID:20935099, scientific Abstract retrieved from source-qualified MED metadata. Supports prey-derived nutrition during intrabacterial replication; do not generalize its single-prey wording to a fixed predator occupancy or universal prey dependence. Full-text delivery failed; Methods, actual figures and supplement remain unread. MED links a commentary, not a correction/retraction; publisher notice check was inaccessible. Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20935099/.

  • DOI:10.1128/jb.96.4.1366-1381.1968
    Although partial disruption of the cytoplasmic membrane was always apparent, the parasite did not appear to actively penetrate through this barrier.

    Burnham et al. 1968, PMID:4879563, scientific Abstract directly read at PubMed and matched source-qualified MED metadata. Electron microscopy supports entry without observed active penetration of the prey cytoplasmic membrane, not an intact membrane throughout predation or direct nutrient tracing. Full text and actual figures were unavailable; no strain-level example inferred. MED/PubMed exposed no linked notice, but publisher notice status was not verified. Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4879563/.

Provenance

Identifier source
TraitMech local identifier
Definition source
DOI:10.1038/s42003-025-09010-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.

  • Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus HD100 NCBITaxon:264462 DOI:10.1038/s42003-025-09010-x Qualified to wild-type HD100, not deletion, complemented or host-independent derivatives. Lai et al. used E. coli laboratory prey; this is not direct field observation. DSM 50701 is HD100 and is recorded as a soil isolate at https://webshop.dsmz.de/en/bacteria/Bdellovibrio-bacteriovorus.html; this establishes natural provenance, not another predation assay. NCBI strain identifier, scientific name and DSM 50701 synonym independently checked on 2026-10-11: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=264462.

Discussions and Knowledge Gaps (2)

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

Distinguish periplasmic feeding from invasion alone.

CURATION TODO OPEN periplasmic-predation-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.

Predatory bacterium traitmech:000054 is broader; its intraperiplasmic_growth node denotes a lifecycle stage, not this whole feeding phenotype, and must not be equated to it. Epibiotic bacterial predation traitmech:000697 keeps the predator cell body external. Generic intracellular predation, endoparasitism and endosymbiosis are not exact synonyms of periplasmic predation. Attachment, killing without entry, or residence without nutritional growth are insufficient. Exact synonyms and xrefs remain unassigned pending authority and scope reconciliation. No organism-level disjointness, universal prey range, division pattern, progeny number or obligate dependence is asserted.

Ground model-specific machinery before adding causal edges.

KNOWLEDGE GAP OPEN periplasmic-predation-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.

A protein-resolved graph and protein examples are deferred, not claimed absent. The 2025 proteome and perturbation experiments provide leads, but protein abundance, gene presence and predicted sequence function do not establish the complete feeding mechanism. Heterologous prey lysis does not establish predator invasion or nutrient uptake. Verify exact accessions, taxon pairing and relevant supplements before curating machinery; do not transfer the HD100 mechanism to every periplasmic predator.

Curation history

  1. · MINTED_TRAITMECH_ID · codex

    Added periplasmic bacterial predation beneath predatory bacterium with three DOI-backed sources, checked snippets and a WT-qualified HD100 example. Ignored/hidden main/worktree and pending-PR checks support 000699 and v575 block 1065200-1065299. Existing records unchanged; exact mappings and mechanism grounding remain open. Timestamp records the observed UTC curation decision.

Recorded curation sessions

  • · codex
    • CREATE — Add periplasmic bacterial predation as an evidence-backed microbial trait

      Added traitmech:000699 under predatory bacterium with three DOI-backed sources, directly checked short snippets, WT-qualified HD100 canonical example and two open scope/grounding discussions. Included v575 proposal reserving METPO:1065200-1065299 and reusing the existing v5 parent. Ignored/hidden worktree and upstream reservation checks were completed before allocation; no prior TraitRecord was changed. Source access and inference limits are explicit. Writer dry run and 20 focused tests passed before application; broader generated-artifact, review and PR gates follow.

    Read this curation session