Cyanobacterial Predatory: Underexplored Diversity and Future Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Aquatic environments, including both freshwater and marine ecosystems, are frequently perturbed by the intensification of cyanobacterial biomass (i.e., blooms) worldwide. They pose a serious ecological threat, as several dominant species are capable of producing cyanotoxins and other bioactive products that severely alter food webs and human health.

While the majority of cyanobacterial research focuses on the environmental factors that control the bloom-forming species, toxin production, toxicity to livestock, etc., few studies focus on the diversity of predatory feeding on “prey cyanobacteria”, and how grazers or phages can influence the duration or even prevent the onset of blooms in aquatic systems. Although bacteriophages and metazooplankton grazers (cladocerans, copepods and rotifers) have garnered interest in recent decades, reports on other groups such as mixotrophic algae (dinoflagellates), protists (e.g., ciliates and amoebae) and invertebrates (e.g., insect larvae) are still scarce, despite their major contribution to ecosystem functioning. To date, no predatory archaeans are known, while a few bacterial species are well characterized as effective predators (belonging to only three phyla).

This imbalance in the composition of consumer groups leads to a recurrent bias in the literature, which encompasses the total biotic components affecting cyanobacterial taxa and their toxic potential for bloom management and future predictions.

Consequently, this Special Issue is open, but not limited, to recent advances relating to new predator species, from bacteriophages to invertebrates that prey on cyanobacteria, and the underlying mechanisms of cyanobacterial cell lysis or toxin degradation/reduction. Short communications, critical reviews or challenging questions in the field are also particularly welcome.

Dr. Katia Comte
Guest Editor

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• freshwater and marine cyanobacteria
• bloom-forming species
• cyanotoxins
• trophic interactions
• predatory
• cyanophages
• zooplankton grazers (i.e., from protists to invertebrates)
• toxin transfer in food webs