Figures
Myxococcus xanthus cells exhibiting their complex social behaviors.
M. xanthus is a predatory bacterium that moves on exclusively solid surfaces and exhibits various collective behaviors throughout its lifecycle. In the presence of prey (here E. coli), M. xanthus cells self-organize into periodic bands of traveling waves, termed ripples (left-hand side). In the areas without prey, M. xanthus cells are under nutrient stress and as a result self-organize into haystack-shaped, spore-filled structures termed fruiting bodies (right-hand side, yellow mounds). See Zhang et al.
Image Credit: Zalman Vaksman and Heidi Kaplan, University of Texas Medical School.
Citation: (2012) PLoS Computational Biology Issue Image | Vol. 8(9) September 2012. PLoS Comput Biol 8(9): ev08.i09. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pcbi.v08.i09
Published: September 27, 2012
Copyright: © Vaksman, Kaplan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
M. xanthus is a predatory bacterium that moves on exclusively solid surfaces and exhibits various collective behaviors throughout its lifecycle. In the presence of prey (here E. coli), M. xanthus cells self-organize into periodic bands of traveling waves, termed ripples (left-hand side). In the areas without prey, M. xanthus cells are under nutrient stress and as a result self-organize into haystack-shaped, spore-filled structures termed fruiting bodies (right-hand side, yellow mounds). See Zhang et al.
Image Credit: Zalman Vaksman and Heidi Kaplan, University of Texas Medical School.