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Both marine phages and predatory protists prey on bacteria. Something has been written about how phages may help bacteria escape protist predation. Click here for an erudite treatment. Is something known about the converse, namely communication between protists and phages? For instance, do protists make compounds that diminish predation by phages, e.g., by making phage-inhibitory substances?
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Mark, I think that is a good remark, but, does it discard the co-evolution of the eukaryote RNA interference with phagues and bacterial transposable elements? In fact, it is a single virus considered. The eukaryote RNA interference system does not either protect us from all our pathogenes... I think the basic toolkit of the RNA interference does not prevent the system to react against interspecies viruses.
In fact, it could be interesting to analyze this hyphotesis in light of the tug of war following the so-called "intron catastrophe".
http://www.biology-direct.com/content/1/1/22
If eukarytes have been exposed to this type of selfish elements for a while, it should be feasible to consider complex scenarios, such as symbiosis based on the shelter of the cytoplasmatic protection.
Posted by: Alberto Carmona Bayonas | August 15, 2011 at 07:48 AM