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Predatory behavior in bacteria
Article By:
Jurkevitch, Edouard Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Quality Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
Last reviewed:2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB090005
Predation is a central ecological and evolutionary force. Predation shapes communities of organisms and ecosystems, impacts upon the behavior of both prey and predator, and influences evolutionary trajectories. Most of our knowledge about predatory interactions results from animal studies. If prokaryotes emerged before the eukaryotic lineages, around 3.8 billion years ago, then the first predators may have been prokaryotic organisms preying upon other prokaryotes. Here, for the sake of simplicity, all prokaryotes will be referred to as “bacteria.”
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