Wy. Shi et al., CELL-DENSITY REGULATES CELLULAR REVERSAL FREQUENCY IN MYXOCOCCUS-XANTHUS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 93(9), 1996, pp. 4142-4146
Myxococcus xanthus is a Gram-negative bacterium that aggregates to for
m fruiting bodies when nutrients are limiting. Previous studies showed
that the frz mutants that are defective in chemotaxis exhibited irreg
ular and infrequent patterns of cellular reversal. In contrast, wild-t
ype cells, when examined individually, reverse relatively frequently,
about once every 6 min. It is not known how the change of reversal fre
quency effects cellular aggregation during fruiting body formation in
M. xanthus. In this study, we stained cells with a tetrazolium dye so
that we could track the reversal frequencies of single cells and cells
in groups. We found that developmental cells in large groups reverse
much less than cells in small groups or as single cells, This reduced
cellular reversal frequency is related to the frz signal transduction
system and correlated with the methylation of FrzCD (a methyl-acceptin
g chemotaxis protein). Cells containing a mutation in the frz genes or
in the genes required for social motility do not respond in this way.
The reduction in cellular reversals as developmental cells accumulate
in groups suggests a simple hypothesis for the aggregation of cells i
nto discrete mounds during fruiting body formation. We also found that
M. xanthus cells glide with equal frequency in the forward or reverse
directions, indicating that cells do not contain a ''head'' or ''tail
.''