A single-celled phytoplankton that forms enormous blooms in the ocean and plays a vital role in regulating the carbon cycle has an unusual defense against a virus: When the virus appears, the microbe switches into a different life phase, thereby avoiding an attack from the virus. Researchers call the clever defense a “Cheshire Cat escape strategy” after the cat in Alice in Wonderland that occasionally vanished.
“In this paper, we show how a species can escape from [environmental] pressure by switching to a life-cycle phase or form that’s not recognizable by a predator,” said Miguel Frada, a marine microbiologist [The Scientist]. The microbe, named Emiliania huxleyi, is so abundant in the ocean that its massive blooms can form turquoise patches visible from space, yet these blooms are often cut off abruptly in a boom-and-bust cycle. The new study suggests that the busts are caused when a virus causes the microbes to switch forms.
