Bacteria are prey to bacteriophages, other bacteria, protists, and fungi. Can you think of a mechanism that all these predators may have in common?
Post a comment
Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.
Your Information
(Name is required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
CONTACT!
In order to eat one has to touch! There has to be surface to surface contact in order to engulf! Thus, we could generalize and say that all predators have to contact their prey! This is one of the key common mechanisms. The claw and teeth of the lion has to contact the antelope, just like lambda to bacterial OMP’s, fungal hyphae to cell surface receptors, ad infinitum...
However, on might envision death without direct engagement – such as by long distance toxins – and then absorbance of the nutrients released. This latter matter has two philosophical problems in regard to the Talmudic question asked. First, long distance killing by toxins does not necessarily mean absorption of nutrient. Thus its a “predator in trans”. Secondly, even a toxin has to make contact eventually, thus not eliminating the common mechanism of contact – in its most orthodox understanding.
Posted by: Mehmet Berkmen | November 29, 2008 at 10:26 AM