Fascinating microbes: Vampirococcus

Article by Mufaddal Dewaswala

When we hear the word ‘vampire’ we usually think about ‘blood sucking’ or ‘twilight’.  Well you may be partially right. The organism Vampirococcus is a predatory bacterium, which feeds upon cytoplasm of phototrophic bacteria such as Chromatium.

It is a Gram negative organism. Vampirococcus attaches itself to the membrane of the host and reproduces by ‘sucking’ the innards of its prey. Vampirococcus can not replicate via fission unless it’s attached to a prey cell. The organism is an epibiont. [Epibiont means an organism that lives on the surface of another living organism, in this case the cell membrane]
Some more information; Source: Fresh water, Morphology: Oviodal, Response to oxygen: Anaerobe.

Reference: Guerrero, Richard. “Predatory Prokaryotes: Predation and Primary Consumption Evolved in Bacteria.” 20 Feb 2009.