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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2007, p. 611-619, Vol. 189, No. 2
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01206-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Aggregation during Fruiting Body Formation in Myxococcus xanthus Is Driven by Reducing Cell Movement{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Oleksii Sliusarenko,1 David R. Zusman,2 and George Oster2*

Departments of Physics,1 Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 947202

Received 2 August 2006/ Accepted 30 October 2006

When starved, Myxococcus xanthus cells assemble themselves into aggregates of about 105 cells that grow into complex structures called fruiting bodies, where they later sporulate. Here we present new observations on the velocities of the cells, their orientations, and reversal rates during the early stages of fruiting body formation. Most strikingly, we find that during aggregation, cell velocities slow dramatically and cells orient themselves in parallel inside the aggregates, while later cell orientations are circumferential to the periphery. The slowing of cell velocity, rather than changes in reversal frequency, can account for the accumulation of cells into aggregates. These observations are mimicked by a continuous agent-based computational model that reproduces the early stages of fruiting body formation. We also show, both experimentally and computationally, how changes in reversal frequency controlled by the Frz system mutants affect the shape of these early fruiting bodies.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone: (510) 642-5277. Fax: (510) 643-2159. E-mail: goster{at}nature.berkeley.edu.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 10 November 2006.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, January 2007, p. 611-619, Vol. 189, No. 2
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01206-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Curtis, P. D., Taylor, R. G., Welch, R. D., Shimkets, L. J. (2007). Spatial Organization of Myxococcus xanthus during Fruiting Body Formation. J. Bacteriol. 189: 9126-9130 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Berleman, J. E., Kirby, J. R. (2007). Multicellular Development in Myxococcus xanthus Is Stimulated by Predator-Prey Interactions. J. Bacteriol. 189: 5675-5682 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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