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Interactions between the Newly Described Small‐ and Fast‐Swimming Mixotrophic Dinoflagellate Yihiella yeosuensis and Common Heterotrophic Protists
Author(s) -
Jeong Hae Jin,
Kang Hee Chang,
You Ji Hyun,
Jang Se Hyeon
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of eukaryotic microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.067
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1550-7408
pISSN - 1066-5234
DOI - 10.1111/jeu.12506
Subject(s) - dinoflagellate , biology , mixotroph , predation , red tide , heterotroph , predator , botany , ingestion , ecology , zoology , bacteria , biochemistry , genetics
The mixotroph Yihiella yeosuensis is a small‐ and fast‐swimming dinoflagellate. To investigate its protistan predators, interactions between Y. yeosuensis and 11 heterotrophic protists were explored. No potential predators were able to feed on actively swimming Y. yeosuensis cells, which escaped via rapid jumps, whereas Aduncodinium glandula , Oxyrrhis marina , and Strombidinopsis sp. (approximately 150 μm in cell length) were able to feed on weakly swimming cells that could not jump. Furthermore, Gyrodinium dominans , Luciella masanensis , and Pfiesteria piscicida were able to feed on heat‐killed Yihiella cells, whereas Gyrodinium moestrupii , Noctiluca scintillans , Oblea rotunda , Polykrikos kofoidii , and Strombidium sp. (20 μm) did not feed on them. Thus, the jumping behavior of Y. yeosuensis might be primarily responsible for the observed lack of predation. With increasing Yihiella concentration, the growth rate of O. marina decreased, whereas that of Strombidinopsis did not change. However, with increasing Yihiella concentration (up to 530 ng C/ml), the ingestion rate of Strombidinopsis on Yihiella increased linearly. The highest ingestion rate was 24.1 ng C per predator per d. The low daily carbon acquisition from Yihiella relative to the body carbon content of Strombidinopsis might be responsible for its negligible growth. Thus, Y. yeosuensis might have an advantage over its competitors due to its low mortality rate.