Ephemeral swimmers of marine parasites – EPHEMER

Survival of widespread marine planktonic parasites strictly depends on the capability of zoospores, their short-lived flagellated unicellular form, to find and infect their specific host among a complex microbial community in a quite short time (few hours to few days). Considering that almost nothing is known about this life stage in the marine plankton, the EPHEMER project freely draws its inspiration from the abundant literature existing on spermatozoa, another highly specialized cryptic forms with similar vital emergency. Exploring whether chemotaxis, traits (and their trade-offs), energetic metabolism, and complex biotic interactions, such as competition and cooperation, are involved in the zoospores performance and survival, from birth to death, are on the scope of this project. The quality of marine plankton biology and ecology experts involved in this project is optimal to explore these mechanisms from the subcellular to the community levels.