GONUTS has been updated to MW1.31 Most things seem to be working but be sure to report problems.
PMID:21856842
| Citation |
Kaiser, D and Warrick, H (2011) Myxococcus xanthus swarms are driven by growth and regulated by a pacemaker. J. Bacteriol. 193:5898-904 |
|---|---|
| Abstract |
The principal social activity of Myxococcus xanthus is to organize a dynamic multicellular structure, known as a swarm. Although its cell density is high, the swarm can grow and expand rapidly. Within the swarm, the individual rod-shaped cells are constantly moving, transiently interacting with one another, and independently reversing their gliding direction. Periodic reversal is, in fact, essential for creating a swarm, and the reversal frequency controls the rate of swarm expansion. Chemotaxis toward nutrient has been thought to drive swarming, but here the nature of swarm growth and the impact of genetic deletions of members of the Frz family of proteins suggest otherwise. We find that three cytoplasmic Frz proteins, FrzCD, FrzF, and FrzE, constitute a cyclic pathway that sets the reversal frequency. Within each cell these three proteins appear to be connected in a negative-feedback loop that produces oscillations whose frequencies are finely tuned by methylation and by phosphorylation. This oscillator, in turn, drives MglAB, a small G-protein switch, to oscillate between its GTP- and GDP-bound states that ultimately determine when the cell moves forward or backward. The periodic reversal of interacting rod-shaped cells promotes their alignment. Swarm organization ensures that each cell can move without blocking the movement of others. |
| Links |
PubMed PMC3194913 Online version:10.1128/JB.00168-11 |
| Keywords |
Bacterial Proteins/genetics; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism; Feedback, Physiological; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Locomotion; Methylation; Myxococcus xanthus/growth & development; Myxococcus xanthus/physiology; Phosphorylation |
| edit table |
Significance
Annotations
| Gene product | Qualifier | GO Term | Evidence Code | with/from | Aspect | Extension | Notes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
involved_in |
GO:0071978: bacterial-type flagellum-dependent swarming motility |
ECO:0000315: mutant phenotype evidence used in manual assertion |
P |
Seeded From UniProt |
complete | |||
| GO:0071978: bacterial-type flagellar swarming motility |
ECO:0000315: |
P |
Fig. 4B illustrates reduced swarm diameter observed in a frzE mutant compared to the swarm diameter observed in WT DK1622. Deletion of this gene does not completely knock out swarming ability but greatly decreases it. |
complete | ||||
See also
References
See Help:References for how to manage references in GONUTS.
