Title: Interconnected Cavernous Structure of Bacterial Fruiting Bodies

Abstract

The formation of spore-filled fruiting bodies by myxobacteria is a fascinating case of multicelular 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 Imitations at 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 nigh and low spore density regions. Here, 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 newmore » insight Into the mechanisms that can give rise to the pattern formation seen In other biological systems such as dlctyostelids, social amoeba known to form multicellular aggregates observed as slugs under starvation conditions.« less

Authors:

Harvey, Cameron W. ^[1]; Du, Huijing ^[2]; Xu, Zhiliang ^[2]; Kaiser, Dale ^[3]; Aranson, Igor ^[4]; Alber, Mark ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States). Dept. of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics; Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States). Dept. of Physics
2. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States). Dept. of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics
3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry
4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division; Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics

Publication Date:

Thu Dec 27 00:00:00 EST 2012

Research Org.:

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Institutes of Health (NIH)

OSTI Identifier:

1396266

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-06CH11357; 1R01GM100470-01

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

PLoS Computational Biology (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: PLoS Computational Biology (Online); Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1553-7358

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES