Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies.
The formation of spore-filled fruiting bodies by myxobacteria is a fascinating case of multicellular self-organization by bacteria. The organization of Myxococcus xanthus into fruiting bodies has long been studied not only as an important example of collective motion of bacteria, but also as a simpl...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2012-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002850&type=printable |
| _version_ | 1826799420020097024 |
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| author | Cameron W Harvey Huijing Du Zhiliang Xu Dale Kaiser Igor Aranson Mark Alber |
| author_facet | Cameron W Harvey Huijing Du Zhiliang Xu Dale Kaiser Igor Aranson Mark Alber |
| author_sort | Cameron W Harvey |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The formation of spore-filled fruiting bodies by myxobacteria is a fascinating case of multicellular self-organization by bacteria. The organization of Myxococcus xanthus into fruiting bodies has long been studied not only as an important example of collective motion of bacteria, but also as a simplified model for developmental morphogenesis. Sporulation within the nascent fruiting body requires signaling between moving cells in order that the rod-shaped self-propelled cells differentiate into spores at the appropriate time. Probing the three-dimensional structure of myxobacteria fruiting bodies has previously presented a challenge due to limitations of different imaging methods. A new technique using Infrared Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) revealed previously unknown details of the internal structure of M. xanthus fruiting bodies consisting of interconnected pockets of relative high and low spore density regions. To make sense of the experimentally observed structure, modeling and computer simulations were used to test a hypothesized mechanism that could produce high-density pockets of spores. The mechanism consists of self-propelled cells aligning with each other and signaling by end-to-end contact to coordinate the process of differentiation resulting in a pattern of clusters observed in the experiment. The integration of novel OCT experimental techniques with computational simulations can provide new insight into the mechanisms that can give rise to the pattern formation seen in other biological systems such as dictyostelids, social amoeba known to form multicellular aggregates observed as slugs under starvation conditions. |
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| id | doaj.art-a28a1d812f574990bda788eaa3635b2c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-17T00:34:48Z |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-a28a1d812f574990bda788eaa3635b2c2025-02-21T05:32:01ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582012-01-01812e100285010.1371/journal.pcbi.1002850Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies.Cameron W HarveyHuijing DuZhiliang XuDale KaiserIgor AransonMark AlberThe formation of spore-filled fruiting bodies by myxobacteria is a fascinating case of multicellular self-organization by bacteria. The organization of Myxococcus xanthus into fruiting bodies has long been studied not only as an important example of collective motion of bacteria, but also as a simplified model for developmental morphogenesis. Sporulation within the nascent fruiting body requires signaling between moving cells in order that the rod-shaped self-propelled cells differentiate into spores at the appropriate time. Probing the three-dimensional structure of myxobacteria fruiting bodies has previously presented a challenge due to limitations of different imaging methods. A new technique using Infrared Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) revealed previously unknown details of the internal structure of M. xanthus fruiting bodies consisting of interconnected pockets of relative high and low spore density regions. To make sense of the experimentally observed structure, modeling and computer simulations were used to test a hypothesized mechanism that could produce high-density pockets of spores. The mechanism consists of self-propelled cells aligning with each other and signaling by end-to-end contact to coordinate the process of differentiation resulting in a pattern of clusters observed in the experiment. The integration of novel OCT experimental techniques with computational simulations can provide new insight into the mechanisms that can give rise to the pattern formation seen in other biological systems such as dictyostelids, social amoeba known to form multicellular aggregates observed as slugs under starvation conditions.https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002850&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Cameron W Harvey Huijing Du Zhiliang Xu Dale Kaiser Igor Aranson Mark Alber Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies. |
| title_full | Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies. |
| title_fullStr | Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies. |
| title_short | Interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies. |
| title_sort | interconnected cavernous structure of bacterial fruiting bodies |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002850&type=printable |
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