“…Species interactions play an important role in driving ecological processes, a perspective that harks back to the earliest studies of ecology (Janzen, 1966; Odum, 1964; Pimm, 1984), including in the case of infectious disease dynamics (Johnson et al, 2015; Tylianakis et al, 2008). Among these interactions, many complex relationships between bacteria and free‐living amoebae (FLA) have only been elucidated relatively recently, despite their widespread existence and significant influence in several host–pathogen systems (Balczun & Scheid, 2017; Gu et al, 2022; Phillips et al, 2020; Rodríguez‐Zaragoza, 1994; Shi et al, 2021). Interactions between FLA and bacteria vary along a continuum from classical predator–prey dynamics, to symbiosis, to host–pathogen dynamics (Balczun & Scheid, 2017; Escoll et al, 2013; Fritsche et al, 1993; Horn & Wagner, 2004; Long et al, 2018; Mirabedini et al, 2022; Phillips et al, 2020; Rodríguez‐Zaragoza, 1994; Samba‐Louaka et al, 2018; Samba‐Louaka et al, 2019; Schmitz‐Esser et al, 2008).…”