vampyrellids (you need to scroll to the bottom)
Soil protozoa that, like their namesake, punch holes and "suck out the good stuff." Only they do it to fungi, including a disease of wheat roots.
"The perfectly round holes drilled through the fungal cell wall, much like the purported puncture marks on the neck of a vampire’s victim, are evidence of the presence of vampyrellid amoebae. The amoebae attach to the surface of fungal hyphae and generate enzymes that eat through the fungal cell wall. The amoeba then sucks dry or engulfs the cytoplasm inside the fungal cell before moving on to its next victim."
I bet the USDA person had fun writing that up.
I didn't even know of the existence of these things before doing a little additional looking-up of soil protozoa for my soils class.
2 comments:
"Vampyrellids" and the (former) flavors of quarks.
They say scientists have no sense of humor. Boy are they wrong.
Bwahahaha, that's awesome! There are some bacteria--originally found in northern Spain--that do the same thing. They're called Vampirococci.
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