Isolation, enumeration, and host range of marine bdellovibrios

Halobacteriovorax, an underestimated predator on bacteria: potential impact relative to viruses on bacterial mortality

“…Within the periplasm the predator feeds and grows on the prey's cellular material, multiplies by segmenting, and lyses the remaining prey cell wall, releasing newly formed predators into the environment to repeat the cycle (Starr and Baigent 1966). Although relatively low in abundance, typically 0-50 plaque-forming units (PFU) per ml (Taylor et al, 1974;Varon and Shilo, 1980;Richards et al, 2013), compared with viruses, BALOs are ubiquitous globally. They have been isolated from oceans, seas, estuaries, salt lakes, ponds, freshwater systems and soils (Taylor et al, 1974;Williams, 1979;Sutton and Besant, 1994;Pineiro et al, 2004;Davidov et al, 2006;Pineiro et al, 2007).…”

“…Although relatively low in abundance, typically 0-50 plaque-forming units (PFU) per ml (Taylor et al, 1974;Varon and Shilo, 1980;Richards et al, 2013), compared with viruses, BALOs are ubiquitous globally. They have been isolated from oceans, seas, estuaries, salt lakes, ponds, freshwater systems and soils (Taylor et al, 1974;Williams, 1979;Sutton and Besant, 1994;Pineiro et al, 2004;Davidov et al, 2006;Pineiro et al, 2007). Furthermore, many bacteria, up to 80% of cultivable organisms in estuarine systems, have been reported to be susceptible to predation by BALOs (Rice et al, 1998).…”

16S rDNA sequence analysis of environmental Bdellovibrio-and-like organisms (BALO) reveals extensive diversity.

“…GjC ratios, fatty-acid profiles, membrane protein compositions, antigenic variations and prey ranges (Guether et al, 1993 ;Kramer & Westergaard, 1977 ;Marbach et al, 1976 ;Park & Mahadevan, 1988 ;Ruby, 1991 ;Seidler et al, 1969Seidler et al, , 1972Severin et al, 1981 ;Sutton & Besant, 1994 ;Taylor et al, 1974). The taxonomic status of the organisms remains ill defined.…”

Development and Use of Fluorescent Probes for Detection, Enumeration and Identification of Naturally-Occurring Marine Viruses.

“…As might be expected the two cyanobacterial strains for 2 which the highest titer of infectious viruses was routinely recorded (DC2 and SYN48) were 3 also the isolates which were infected by more than a single virus clone ( 23 Adsorption kinetics, photosynthetic rates and the viral growth cycle. 24 The adsorption of S-BBS1 to BBCI did not deviate substantially from a log-lincar 25 relationship (r 2 = 0.94) for the 60 min over which the kinetics were determined (Fig. 4).…”

“…As rapid viral propagation requires high host 22 densities (11), a more dilute Synechococcus community in oligotrophic waters wilt fesif. in 23 less efficient phage propagation and, therefore, a lower probability of encountering a viral 24 pathogen. 25 26 It is also significant that hosts from widely separated geographical regions were The viruses which infected marine Synechococcus spp.…”