Photo-dependent population dynamics of Stentor coeruleus and its consumption of Colpidium striatum

Abstract

The predatory protozoan Stentor coeruleus Ehrenberg, 1830 is known to show photosensitivity and photodispersion, avoiding regions of high light intensity as an antipredation strategy. This physiological and behavioral response to light likely has demographic consequences. We manipulated light intensity to determine population responses of S. coeruleus and the resulting effects on its prey Colpidium striatum Stokes, 1886. We show that S. coeruleus maintained the highest population density under ambient light levels and low densities under both high and no light treatments. The results from the no light treatment were surprising because little work has been done on possible important behavioral and physiological processes cued by light. These results add power to the use of S. coeruleus as a model predator system to test ecological dynamics and processes associated with predation.

Free living ciliated protists from the chemoautotrophic cave ecosystem of Frasassi (Italy)

“…7). To date, similar behaviour, although not with such a dramatic response, has been described in a few other ciliated protists, such as Stentor coeruleus, which escapes from areas of high light intensity as an antipredation strategy (Cadotte et al 2007), and the psychrophilic ciliate Euplotes focardii, which inhabits the shallow marine coastal sediments of Antarctica (La Terza et al 2001). In this extremophile ciliate, which shares with U. turbo a perpetually dark habitat, exposure to visible light is able to induce the expression of its heat shock protein (hsp) 70 genes as a defensive response (La Terza et al 2004Terza et al , 2007Fulgentini et al 2015).…”

Bioaccumulation of Stentorin, the Probable Causative Agent for Discolored (“Purple”) Eggs and Ovaries in Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) from Eufaula Lake, Oklahoma, USA

“…coeruleus tolerates flowing or stagnant waters of 0–10 ‰ salinity and 0–5000 mg/L chloride (oligo-euryhaline) and typically inhabits the recovery zone of polluted waterways (α- to β-mesosaprobity). , S. coeruleus may be epibenthic, periphytic, or planktonic; it also undergoes vertical migrations in response to dissolved oxygen and ambient light , and feeds primarily on autotrophic organisms, protozoans, and metazoans. Stentorids (including S.…”

Genetic Diversity and Variance of Stentor coeruleus (Ciliophora: Heterotrichea) Inferred from Inter‐Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) Fingerprinting

“…The ciliate Stentor coeruleus is a free‐living, blue‐green, large trumpet‐shaped protozoon that exhibits photo‐sensitivity and photo‐dispersal (Cadotte, Jantz, and Mai ). Thamm, Schmidt, and Bernhard () analyzed the small subunit rDNA sequences of eight species of the genus and found a high level of intraspecific variation within several species.…”