Frog-Killing Fungus Meets Its Match in Hidden World of Tiny Predators | The Artful Amoeba, Scientific American Blog Network

Dirk Schmeller, Adeline Loyau, Frank Pasmans, Mark Blooi, and their colleagues have discovered that, at least in the alpine lakes of the Pyrenees between France and Spain, tiny predatory microbes can put the disease-causing fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, soundly in its place. They do this because the fungus has relatives in the lake that look and act similarly, and these fungi make up a natural part of these microbes’ diets. These native microscopic fungi dine on detritus, not frogs. But to micropredatores, the spores of Bd look just like their regular breakfasts, and are evidently just as tasty.

Frog-Killing Fungus Meets Its Match in Hidden World of Tiny Predators | The Artful Amoeba, Scientific American Blog Network