Are grazer-induced adaptations of bacterial abundance and morphology timedependent?

Predation by protists is a well known force that shapes bacterial communities and can lead to filamentous forms and aggregations of large cell clusters. These classic resistance strategies were observed as a direct consequence of predation by heteroand mixotrophic flagellates (the main group of bacteria predators in water) on natural assemblages of bacteria and on single plastic strains. Recently it was shown that a long time exposure (about 30 days) of a bacterial strain, characterized by high degree of phenotypic plasticity, to flagellates, without direct predation, enhanced the formation of resistant forms (filaments) in a continuous culture system. Target prey populations and predators were separated by a dialysis membrane. Moreover, the positive impact on bacterial growth, due to the chemical excretes released by flagellates was demonstrated for exudates of photosynthetic activity. The same positive impact may also be seen in response to exudates related to grazing. In this study, two short-term experiments (