Better the Vampire You Know...

Bacterial vampires are real, and we don't know much about them

I’m sure, like me, you worry about reasonable things such as climate change, failure, and, of course, vampires. But fear not! Now, you too can be equipped with knowledge of ‘real’ vampirism through modern microbes, which we have yet to fully understand. 

Vampires as a myth have been around since at least as early as the tenth and eleventh centuries, and there was a time when rising from your grave to drink blood was a very real fear. Alcoholism, a violent death, or being unbaptised could put one at risk of returning as a creature of the night. Archaeological evidence of grave sites like that of the Drawsko cemetery in Poland has uncovered an array of suspected ‘anti-vampire’ measures in a handful of graves, including objects such as sickles, nails, or coins believed to protect the living from an undead threat.  

Vampires remain a cultural phenomenon the world over, but the genuine belief in people coming back as vampires — or indeed in the existence of creatures such as vampires — is not a widespread social norm. However, looking toward the biological tree of life, we can still find numerous examples of modern-day ‘vampires’ in existence, with no superstition required. There are some well-known bloodsuckers such as mosquitos and bats flying around, sure, but so too is there the lesser-known vampire finch of the Galapagos. And looking deeper, or rather, smaller, one can find the likes of Vampirococcus lugosii just under the microscope. Unlike cultural vampires of human history or larger living organisms, the vampires of the microbial world are arguably just as viscerally terrifying as their mythological counterparts, albeit far less researched. 

V. lugosi can be found in lakes, and hunts photosynthetic bacteria by capturing a prey cell with retractable pili — the short tentacle-like appendages seen around certain bacteria ‘suck’ the entirety of their prey’s cellular (cytoplasmic) content, much like a vampire extending its fangs and likenings its victim to a Capri Sun. While it drinks its host dry, it grows, eventually creating an extended ‘stalk’ to reach out to attach to another unlucky cell and repeat the cycle. Imagine being grabbed out of nowhere by a tiny, sticky, tentacled creature and being drained of your bodily fluids, before your shrivelled corpse is discarded in pursuit of another innocent passer-by. 

Research on these tiny vampires is unfortunately scarce, despite having been named nearly 40 years ago in 1986. In what little research has been done, it has been proposed that V. lugosii is a part of the widespread (and also poorly studied) ‘Candidate Phyla Radiation’ (CPR) bacterial group. It’s also thought that V. lugosii performs vital roles in their microecosystems, like other predators on a large scale. Looking at these tiny vampires could give us an insight into ecosystems themselves as a simplified link between the beginnings of life and the complicated network of species interactions seen today. 

Why, then, is this species so poorly studied? Decades after being named, searching Vampirococcus lugosii on Google Scholar gives a generous five results at the time of writing. Hopefully, in the future, there will be scientists brave enough to tackle the mysteries of these microscopic vampires. After all, it is better the vampire you know than the one you don't.  

Illustration by Isabelle Holloway