Abstract
“Intelligence” is understood in different ways. Because humans are proud of their ability to speak, intelligence often includes the ability to communicate with others, to plan for the future, and to solve frequently encountered problems. Myxobacteria are among the most socially adept and ubiquitous of bacteria that live in the soil. To survive in nature, Myxobacteria communicate with their peers, using signals that elicit specific responses. Both swarming-growth and starvation-induced fruiting body development depend upon the specificity and effectiveness of signals passed between cells. Dynamic swarms spread outward, forming regular multi-cellular and multi-layered structures as they spread. Several different extra-cellular signals have been identified for fruiting body development and one is hypothesized for swarm development. Some extra-cellular signals are small, diffusible molecules. Others are protein molecules. The swarm signal appears to consist of structurally complex, protein to protein, contact junctions between pairs of side by side aligned cells. Each junction persists for less than a minute before disconnecting. After separating, both cells move on to make similar, transient connections with other cells. Eventually, the signal spreads across a prescribed population of communicating cells.
Highlights
Myxobacteria are facultative multicellular organisms, a quality useful for the study of signaling between cells
Singer and Kaiser (1995) found that fruiting body development is induced by starvation and that A-signal helps M. xanthus assess the nutrient available for developmental protein synthesis
When Myxococcus is challenged by starvation, it must choose between initiating fruiting body development with differentiation
Summary
Myxobacteria are facultative multicellular organisms, a quality useful for the study of signaling between cells. These elongated cells move cooperatively in a multicellular swarm, while individual cells prefer to move in the direction of their long axis. Once they have grown to moderate cell densities, adjacent swarm cells tend to align with each other and to form rafts of moving cells (Kaiser and Warrick, 2011). Non-motile mutants form dense, sharp-edged, ordinary colonies whose cells are heaped on each other, lack organization (no rafts), and do not swarm. Non-motile mutants are unable to signal each other or to form organized fruiting body-like structures (Kroos et al, 1988).
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