Molecular Basis and Ecological Relevance of Caulobacter Cell Filamentation in Freshwater Habitats

Abstract

Many bacteria drastically change their cell size and morphology in response to changing environmental conditions. Here, we demonstrate that the freshwater bacterium Caulobacter crescentus and related species transform into filamentous cells in response to conditions that commonly occur in their natural habitat as a result of algal blooms during the warm summer months. These filamentous cells may be better able to scavenge nutrients when they grow in biofilms and to escape from protist predation during planktonic growth. Our findings suggest that seasonal changes and variations in the microbial composition of the natural habitat can have profound impact on the cell biology of individual organisms. Furthermore, our work highlights that bacteria exist in morphological and physiological states in nature that can strongly differ from those commonly studied in the laboratory.