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.

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. The huge cells cannibalize their smaller, genetically identical brethren. The triggers for the change aren’t entirely clear, but it tends to happen when there is plenty of food, researchers reported May 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.