From the Inside Out: an Epibiotic Bdellovibrio Predator with an Expanded Genomic Complement

Abstract

Bdellovibrio and like organisms are bacteria that prey on other bacteria and are widespread in the environment. Most of the known Bdellovibrio species enter the space between the inner and outer prey membrane, where they consume their prey cells. However, one Bdellovibrio species has been described that consumes its prey from the outside. Here, we describe “ Ca . Bdellovibrio qaytius,” a novel member of the genus Bdellovibrio that also remains outside the prey cell throughout its replication cycle. Unexpectedly, the genome of “ Ca . Bdellovibrio” is much more similar to the genomes of intracellular predators than to the species with a similar life cycle. Since “ Ca . Bdellovibrio” is also a basal representative of this genus, we hypothesize that extracellular predation could be the ancestral predation strategy.