ArticlePLoS computational biology2012
The mechanistic basis of Myxococcus xanthus rippling behavior and its physiological role during predation.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- PredatoryFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- The Limits of Our Explanation: A Case Study inBiological theory · 2025Article
- Unravelling a diversity of cellular structures and aggregation dynamics during the early development ofBiology letters · 2024Article
- Two reasons to kill: predation and kin discrimination in myxobacteria.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Review
- Formation and emergent dynamics of spatially organized microbial systems.Interface focus · 2023Review
- Flagellar Motor Transformed: Biophysical Perspectives of theFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Cell density, alignment, and orientation correlate with C-signal-dependent gene expression duringProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- ProfilingJournal of bacteriology · 2021Article
- Quantification ofMicroorganisms · 2021Article
- The environment topography alters the way to multicellularity inScience advances · 2021Article
- Linking single-cell decisions to collective behaviours in social bacteria.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Article
- Conditional requirement of SglT for type IV pili function and S-motility inMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2020Article
- Interplay of mesoscale physics and agent-like behaviors in the parallel evolution of aggregative multicellularity.EvoDevo · 2020Review
- The Predation Strategy ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2020Review
- Biophysics at the coffee shop: lessons learned working with George Oster.Molecular biology of the cell · 2019Article
- Agent-Based Modeling Reveals Possible Mechanisms for Observed Aggregation Cell Behaviors.Biophysical journal · 2018Article
- A gated relaxation oscillator mediated by FrzX controls morphogenetic movements in Myxococcus xanthus.Nature microbiology · 2018Article
- Reversals and collisions optimize protein exchange in bacterial swarms.Physical review. E · 2017Article
- Myxobacteria: Moving, Killing, Feeding, and Surviving Together.Frontiers in microbiology · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Myxococcus xanthus cells self-organize into periodic bands of traveling waves, termed ripples, during multicellular fruiting body development and predation on other bacteria. To investigate the mechanistic basis of rippling behavior and its physiological role during predation by this Gram-negative soil bacterium, we have used an approach that combines mathematical modeling with experimental observations. Specifically, we developed an agent-based model (ABM) to simulate rippling behavior that employs a new signaling mechanism to trigger cellular reversals. The ABM has demonstrated that three ingredients are sufficient to generate rippling behavior: (i) side-to-side signaling between two cells that causes one of the cells to reverse, (ii) a minimal refractory time period after each reversal during which cells cannot reverse again, and (iii) physical interactions that cause the cells to locally align. To explain why rippling behavior appears as a consequence of the presence of prey, we postulate that prey-associated macromolecules indirectly induce ripples by stimulating side-to-side contact-mediated signaling. In parallel to the simulations, M. xanthus predatory rippling behavior was experimentally observed and analyzed using time-lapse microscopy. A formalized relationship between the wavelength, reversal time, and cell velocity has been predicted by the simulations and confirmed by the experimental data. Furthermore, the results suggest that the physiological role of rippling behavior during M. xanthus predation is to increase the rate of spreading over prey cells due to increased side-to-side contact-mediated signaling and to allow predatory cells to remain on the prey longer as a result of more periodic cell motility.
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