Filter-feeding in Colonial Protists

Publication date: Available online 2 May 2019Source: ProtistAuthor(s): Tom FenchelMany protists form cell colonies. Among them several are filter-feeders depending on suspended food particles such as bacteria. It has been suggested that the formation of colonies enhances feeding efficiency and implied that − in the case of colonial choanoflagellates − it was an adaptive trait that led to the evolution of metazoans. Here it is shown experimentally − for a colonial peritrich ciliate and for a choanoflagellate − that colony-formation does not enhance the efficiency of filter-feeding relative to solitary cells and that the adaptive significance of cell colony-formation must have some other explanation.
Source: Protist - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research