News Microbes

This microbe turns into a cannibalistic ‘Hulk’

An abundance of food may trigger this microbe’s strange transformation

A single-celled organism named Euplotes gigatrox sometimes transforms into a supergiant and eats its regular-size siblings.

Ben T. Larson

By Tina Hesman Saey

A newly discovered microbe is like a mini version of the Hulk.

Euplotes gigatrox is a single-celled protist that resembles an insect. It grazes on bacteria and other tiny microbes. Sometimes a small number of the protists balloon into “supergiants” more than twice their regular size.