ArticleNature communications2022
High impact of bacterial predation on cyanobacteria in soil biocrusts.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predation in microbial communities: gradients of nutritive killing.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Assessing the implementation of crustivoltaics inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- The natural history of a biocrust architect, the cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- The Desert in Bottles: The Culturable Microbiome of the Atacama Desert's Grit Crust.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Differences in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling Strategies and Regional Variability in Biological Soil Crust Types.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Research needs on the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship in drylands.npj biodiversity · 2024Review
- Nimble vs. torpid responders to hydration pulse duration among soil microbes.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Siderophores and competition for iron govern myxobacterial predation dynamics.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Spatial organisation of fungi in soil biocrusts of the Kalahari is related to bacterial community structure and may indicate ecological functions of fungi in drylands.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Biocrusts protect the Great Wall of China from erosion.Science advances · 2023Article
- Cultivating Resilience in Dryland Soils: An Assisted Migration Approach to Biological Soil Crust Restoration.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Phylogenetic Revisit to a Review on Predatory Bacteria.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- BONCAT-FACS-Seq reveals the active fraction of a biocrust community undergoing a wet-up event.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Spatial self-segregation of pioneer cyanobacterial species drives microbiome organization in biocrusts.ISME communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diverse bacteria lead a life as pathogens or predators of other bacteria in many environments. However, their impact on emerging ecological processes in natural settings remains to be assessed. Here we describe a novel type of obligate, intracellular predatory bacterium of widespread distribution that preys on soil cyanobacteria in biocrusts. The predator, Candidatus Cyanoraptor togatus, causes localized, cm-sized epidemics that are visible to the naked eye, obliterates cyanobacterial net primary productivity, and severely impacts crucial biocrust properties like nitrogen cycling, dust trapping and moisture retention. The combined effects of high localized morbidity and areal incidence result in decreases approaching 10% of biocrust productivity at the ecosystem scale. Our findings show that bacterial predation can be an important loss factor shaping not only the structure but also the function of microbial communities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.