Social Interactions in Myxobacterial Swarming
Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: Swarming, a collective motion of many thousands of cells, produces colonies that rapidly spread over surfaces.In this paper, we introduce a cell-based model to study how interactions between neighboring cells facilitate swarming.We chose to study Myxococcus xanthus, a species of myxobacteria, because it swarms rapidly and has well-defined cell-cell interactions mediated by type IV pili and by slime trails.The aim of this paper is to test whether the cell contact interactions, which are inherent in pili-based S motility and slime-based A motility, are sufficient to explain the observed expansion of wild-type swarms.The simulations yield a constant rate of swarm expansion, which has been observed experimentally.Also, the model is able to quantify the contributions of S motility and A motility to swarming.Some pathogenic bacteria spread over infected tissue by swarming.The model described here may shed some light on their colonization process.
Source: PLoS Computational Biology
Authors: Yilin Wu, Yi Jiang, A. Dale kaiser, Mark S Alber
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,043
OpenAlex ID: W4237152656