Resource-combining costs of being a diet generalist in the super-generalist protist predator Dictyostelium discoideum

Abstract

Consumers lie on a continuum between diet specialization on few resources to being generalist feeders on many resources. Generalism has the clear advantage of having more resources to exploit, but the costs that limit generalism are less clear. We explore two understudied costs of generalism in a super-generalist amoeba predator, Dictyostelium discoideum, feeding on naturally co-occurring bacterial prey. Both involve costs of combining different prey. First, amoebas exhibit a reduction in growth rate when they switch from one species of prey bacteria to another, something we call resource-switching costs. These switching costs typically disappear within a day, indicating adjustment to new prey bacteria. Second, amoebas usually divide more slowly on mixtures of bacteria compared to on single bacteria, something we call resource-mixing costs. Both results support that idea that, although amoebas can consume a huge variety of prey, they must use partially different methods and thus must pay costs to handle multiple prey, either sequentially or simultaneously. Significance StatementPerhaps the most fundamental conflict in nature occurs when one organism consumes another. Diet generalists benefit from the advantage of eating many prey but then must deal with many prey defences. We explore costs associated with a broad diet in a protist microbial predator, Dictyostelium discoideum. These predators of bacteria show a delay in growth when switched from one bacteria to another, supporting the hypothesis that they must deploy different strategies. They also experience costs when grown on many bacteria at once, suggesting that the alternative strategies for consuming different prey are partly incompatible with each other. Our findings shed light on the nature of diet generalism and highlight the complexity of predation in the microbial world.