{"id":847458,"date":"2026-06-06T01:57:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T01:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/847458\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T01:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T01:57:35","slug":"cannibal-supergiant-microbe-found-hunting-and-devouring-members-of-own-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/847458\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannibal \u2018supergiant\u2019 microbe found hunting and devouring members of own species"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have documented for the first time a microbe <\/a>that drastically transforms its size, shape, and behaviour into a cannibalistic “supergiant” that hunts and devours members of its own species.<\/p>\n

The findings demonstrate how single-celled organisms<\/a> are capable of complex behaviours, and could transform how we understand development in such life forms.<\/p>\n

Until now, the field of developmental biology has largely been focused on studying multicellular animals<\/a> and their behaviour over the years.<\/p>\n

But a new protozoan <\/a>species named Euplotes gigatrox appears to exhibit complex behaviour previously unseen in single-cell life forms.<\/p>\n

Researchers first identified the species from the inside of a seawater filtration system in the Caribbean Island of Cura\u00e7ao<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They spotted that clones of these microbes that live together can spontaneously develop into supergiants more than twice the length of normal cells, with a broader body shape and a larger mouth.<\/p>\n

When they normally exist as single cells, they filter-feed on bacteria.<\/p>\n

But once they transform into supergiants, they become raptorial predators, running over their clonal relatives to capture and swallow them whole at a rate of roughly one prey every 10 minutes, found the study, published in the journal PNAS.<\/p>\n

“This is a single cell doing something we usually associate with the development of animals,” said biologist Ben Larson from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).<\/p>\n

“It expands our picture of what single-celled organisms are capable of, and gives us a new system for asking questions about how cells control their form and function,\u201d said Dr Larson, a co-author of the PNAS study.<\/p>\n

\"Euplotes<\/p>\n

Euplotes gigatrox cell, imaged by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)<\/p>\n

The behaviour change is not just confined to feeding.<\/p>\n

As single cells, the protozoan walks across surfaces and swims gracefully along helical trajectories in fluid.<\/p>\n

But in their supergiant form, they move in circular paths suited to hunting surface-crawling prey, and tumble clumsily rather than swim when displaced from a surface, scientists found.<\/p>\n

“Supergiant formation represents a tradeoff. These cells become better hunters but worse swimmers, shifting their trophic niche from feeding on bacteria to exploiting a completely different type of prey,\u201d Dr Larson said.<\/p>\n

In the study, scientists sequenced the genome and proteins from the protozoan when they exist as normal cells, supergiants, and as cells that had recently reverted from the supergiant state.<\/p>\n

They found that the supergiants are a distinct developmental stage, with widespread differences in gene activity, including protein production and membrane organisation.<\/p>\n

Cells that revert from being supergiants also seem to carry a distinct set of molecules that seem to temporarily suppress transformation back into the giant state.<\/p>\n

Supergiants also never appeared to exceed more than five per cent of the population.<\/p>\n

“Most of what we know about development comes from animals,” Dr Larson said.<\/p>\n

“We now have a system where we can study those same fundamental questions, as analogous developmental processes play out in a single-celled organism on a completely different branch of the tree of life,\u201d the biologist said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have documented for the first time a microbe that drastically transforms its size, shape, and behaviour into…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":847459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[346441,346440,88416,346439,308155,346442,286180,159,267347,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-847458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ben-larson","tag-complex-behaviours","tag-developmental-biology","tag-dr-larson","tag-multicellular-animals","tag-protozoan","tag-rensselaer-polytechnic-institute","tag-science","tag-supergiant","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116700687027178710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}