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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2000, p. 5793-5798, Vol. 182, No. 20
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Myxococcus xanthus dif Genes Are Required for Biogenesis of Cell Surface Fibrils Essential for Social Gliding Motility

Zhaomin Yang,1,dagger Xiaoyuan Ma,1 Leming Tong,1 Heidi B. Kaplan,2 Lawrence J. Shimkets,3 and Wenyuan Shi1,*

School of Dentistry, Molecular Biology Institute and Dental Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-16681; Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, Texas 770302; and Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 306023

Received 29 March 2000/Accepted 31 July 2000

Myxococcus xanthus social (S) gliding motility has been previously reported by us to require the chemotaxis homologues encoded by the dif genes. In addition, two cell surface structures, type IV pili and extracellular matrix fibrils, are also critical to M. xanthus S motility. We have demonstrated here that M. xanthus dif genes are required for the biogenesis of fibrils but not for that of type IV pili. Furthermore, the developmental defects of dif mutants can be partially rescued by the addition of isolated fibril materials. Along with the chemotaxis genes of various swarming bacteria and the pilGHIJ genes of the twitching bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the M. xanthus dif genes belong to a unique class of bacterial chemotaxis genes or homologues implicated in the biogenesis of structures required for bacterial surface locomotion. Genetic studies indicate that the dif genes are linked to the M. xanthus dsp region, a locus known to be crucial for M. xanthus fibril biogenesis and S gliding.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Dentistry, Molecular Biology Institute and Dental Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1668. Phone: (310) 825-8356. Fax: (310) 794-7109. E-mail: wenyuan{at}ucla.edu.

dagger Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849.

Journal of Bacteriology, October 2000, p. 5793-5798, Vol. 182, No. 20
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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