Microbial Trojan Horses

Aquatic environments pose challenges for disease-causing bacteria that are adapted to live in humans and other animals. One of those is being eaten by protists, single-celled organisms that are the most important consumers of bacteria: An individual ciliate, for example, can eat hundreds of bacteria per hour. However, some bacteria are capable of living within protists. Learn more about the ecology of “microbial Trojan Horses,” with Matt First, of the Geology & Geophysics Department, as the 2009 “Science Made Public” summer lecture series continues Aug. 4, 2009, at 2:30 p.m. in the Ocean Science Exhibit Center Auditorium.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)