Research

• Common, thoroughly studied bacterium

• Occurs in most environments, thrives in high temps (37+°C) and shade

• Rely on carbon for production of biomass/growth (can largely use CO2 from environment as resource)

• In ideal environment, replicating in ~20 min

Key Interactions

Tardigrades: consume phytoplankton as nutrient resource, consume E. coli and/or their byproducts

E. coli: compete with phytoplankton for nutrients (CO2, N, etc), population regulated by Tardigrade cultivation

Phytoplankton: compete with E. coli for nutrients (CO2, N, etc), consumed by Tardigrades

Sources

Tardigrades:

https://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/tardigrade/index.html#:~:text=Tardigrades%20can%20survive%20dry%20periods,less%20than%200.01%25%20of%20normal.

http://cshprotocols.cshlp.org/content/2018/11/pdb.prot102319.long

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/tardigrades

https://www.nature.com/articles/176121b0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade#Reproduction%20from%20[Barnes,%20Robert%20D.%20(1982).%20Invertebrate%20Zoology.%20Philadelphia,%20PA:%20Holt-Saunders%20International.%20pp.%20877%E2%80%93880.%20ISBN%20978-0-03-056747-6

https://www.livescience.com/indestructible-tardigrades-cannot-survive-heat.html

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2257008-tardigrades-survive-deadly-radiation-by-glowing-in-the-dark/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00248-017-1134-4

Phytoplankton:

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/phyto.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoplankton

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2020.539733/full#:~:text=Due%20to%20light%20stress%20phytoplankton,et%20al.%2C%201983

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135421011465

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0214933#:~:text=In%20addition%2C%20under%20non%2Dlimiting,temperature%20coefficient

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2011.0160

E.coli:

https://textbookofbacteriology.net/growth_3.html#:~:text=Growth%20Rate%20and%20Generation%20Time&text=The%20generation%20time%20for%20E,15%20minutes%20to%201%20hour

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8694108/757549808035544

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3105702

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135421011465

https://biolabtests.com/top-facts-ecoli/

https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt1103-1266b#:~:text=E.,at%20about%2037%20%C2%B0C