"Turns out that microbes really do use sulfide-eating filaments as buses!" (Follow-up from Microcosmos Updates Entry #3)

 

     In "Microcosmos Updates Entry #3", I speculated on how microorganisms within marine depositional habitats on Earth and Leeuwenhoek may behave and interact with one another. To my knowledge, all of the behaviors I proposed hadn't been recorded in the literature, but I figured that they might have flown under the radar and could still be out there. However, what I didn't expect was to see some of those behaviors come to life right in front of me!

     In this video, I discuss some of my observations of epibionts hitching a ride on Beggiatoa that I collected from a nearby estuary. This is likely the first time this behavior has ever been filmed or observed within intertidal environments! 

     While it's still too early to say whether the epibionts are relying upon the Beggiatoa to aid them in acquiring resources on opposite ends of the redox gradient, I strongly believe that this might be the most plausible scenario given the tremendous ecological advantage it would offer them. Regardless, it's still fascinating to see something from my spec project being mirrored so closely in reality!

Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUO-Prg2rMs 

(Left) My illustration of a Beggiatoa-like organism on Leeuwenhoek transporting epibionts along the redox gradient. (Right) A real Beggiatoa filament transporting rod-shaped

epibionts in a similar manner.