THE PREDATOR! MYXOCOCCUS XANTHUS- ADOPT A BACTERIUM

This is Myxococcus Xanthus microscopic view. It is rod-shaped and gram-negative in nature.

This Yellow -tan coloration can be seen when we culture the colonies of Myxococcus Xanthus on an agar plate. Beautiful and unique right!

Myxococcus Xanthus is a gram-negative, rod-shaped species of myxobacteria that exhibits various forms of self-organizing behavior in response to environmental cues. Under normal conditions with abundant food, it exists as a predatory, saprophytic single-species biofilm called a swarm. Under starvation conditions, it undergoes a multicellular development cycle.[1]

In response to starvation, myxobacteria develop species-specific multicellular fruiting bodies. Starting from a uniform swarm of cells, some aggregate into fruiting bodies, while other cells remain in a vegetative state. Those cells that participate in formation of the fruiting body transform from rods into spherical, heat-resistant myxospores, while the peripheral cells remain rod-shaped.[10] Although not as tolerant to environmental extremes as, say, Bacillus endospores, the relative resistance of myxospores to desiccation and freezing enables myxobacteria to survive seasonally harsh environments. When a nutrient source becomes once again available, the myxospores germinate, shedding their spore coats to emerge into rod-shaped vegetative cells. The synchronized germination of thousands of myxospores from a single fruiting body enables the members of the new colony of myxobacteria to immediately engage in cooperative feeding.[11] M. xanthus cells can also differentiate into environmentally-resistant spores in a starvation-independent manner. This process, known as chemically-induced sporulation, is triggered by the presence of glycerol and other chemical compounds at high concentrations.[12] The biological implications of this sporulation process have been controversial for decades due to the unlikeliness to find such high concentrations of chemical inducers in their natural environment.[13] [14] However, the finding that the antifungal compound ambruticin acts as a potent natural inducer at concentrations expected to be present in soil, suggests that chemically induced sporulation is the result of competition and communication with the ambruticin-producing myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum. [15]

Importance in research
The complex life cycles of the myxobacteria make them very attractive models for the study of gene regulation as well as cell to cell interactions. The traits of M. xanthus make it very easy to study, and therefore important to research. Laboratory strains of M. xanthus are available that are capable of planktonic growth in shaker culture, so that they are easy to grow in large numbers. The tools of classical and molecular genetics are relatively well-developed in M. xanthus.[19]

Although the fruiting bodies of M. xanthus are relatively primitive compared with, say, the elaborate structures produced by Stigmatella aurantiaca and other myxobacteria, the great majority of genes known to be involved in development are conserved across species.[20] In order to make agar cultures of M. xanthus grow into fruiting bodies, one simply can plate the bacteria on starvation media.[21] Furthermore, it is possible to artificially induce the production of myxospores without the intervening formation of fruiting bodies, by adding compounds such as glycerol or various metabolites to the medium.[22] In this way, different stages in the developmental cycle can be experimentally isolated.

The genome of M. xanthus has been completely sequenced.[23] The size of its genome may reflect the complexity of its life cycle. At 9.14 megabase, it had the largest known prokaryotic genome until the sequencing of Sorangium cellulosum (12.3 Mb), which is also a myxobacterium.

Myxococcus xanthus (delta proteobacterium) glides across surfaces using socially coordinated swarms. In this laboratory experiment, M. xanthus cells were nea...

Myxococcus xanthus is a gram-negative, rod-shaped species of myxobacteria that exhibits various forms of self-organizing behavior in response to environmental cues. Under normal conditions with abundant food, it exists as a predatory, saprophytic single-species biofilm called a swarm. Under starvation conditions, it undergoes a multicellular development cycle.[1]