This amoeba eats its prey like an owl

Under a microscope, the water-filled Petri dish was filled with the round, reddish, immobile masses that appear to be the result of blood-feeding algae, but nearby algae lacked the characteristic feeding holes.

Time-lapse photography confirmed that the amoeba was a vampire, but it didn’t feed like other microscopic vampires: it engulfed single-celled clumps and divided. Closterium It breaks down the algae cells, sucks out the insides and discards the rest.

“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Suthouse says. “Of course, the question was, where exactly? [the amoebas] Are you going to do that?

Through feeding experiments, S. Raptor They trap the ingested algae in a special compartment. Enzymes in this compartment appear to dissolve one side of the prey’s cell wall, while the other side remains attached to the compartment’s wall. When the compartment expands, the algae cell opens up like a shelled pistachio. S. Raptor They then roll up their cell walls to scoop up the food and spit it out.

Genetic analysis suggests that this strange vampire belongs to a previously undescribed genus and species. Strigonium Grass, This is the ancient Greek owl and mucus or SlimeThis reflects the owl-like regurgitation behavior of the microbes.

“When you see similar pellet formation in many other organisms, they have multiple cells that perform multiple functions, and this is a single cell performing this kind of mechanical action,” Suthouse says. “This speaks to evolutionary ingenuity.”