Environmental dependence of colony morphologies in Labyrinthula species
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Labyrinthula species are protist organisms found across a variety of marine environments whose defining characteristic is the secretion of an extracellular ectoplasmic net. Under certain conditions, colonies form a spatial network of ‘tracks’ through which cells move bidirectionally. We show that this network morphology depends on the presence of a liquid overlay, with air exposed colonies exhibiting instead a dense, aggregated morphology. We demonstrate dynamic restructuring between these two morphologies upon addition or removal of the liquid overlay, and investigate growth behaviour under varying nutrient conditions. Given the inter-tidal environment of certain seagrass species colonised by Labyrinthula , our results may shed light on the relationship between this organism and its seagrass host, for which it is an opportunistic pathogen associated with seagrass wasting disease.
