ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Earthquake-like dynamics in Myxococcus xanthus social motility.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identification of Novel Polysaccharide from Myxococcus xanthus and its Function in Developmental Sporulation.Current microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa senses exopolysaccharide trails using type IV pili and adhesins during biofilm formation.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Bacterial swimming in porous gels exhibits intermittent run motility with active turns and mechanical trapping.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Bacterial Outer Membrane Polysaccharide Export (OPX) Proteins Occupy Three Structural Classes with Selective β-Barrel Porin Requirements for Polymer Secretion.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Physicochemical and Biological Insights Into the Molecular Interactions Between Extracellular DNA and Exopolysaccharides inFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Scattered migrating colony formation in the filamentous cyanobacterium, Pseudanabaena sp. NIES-4403.BMC microbiology · 2021Article
- Two genomic regions encoding exopolysaccharide production systems have complementary functions in B. cereus multicellularity and host interaction.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Mechanisms for bacterial gliding motility on soft substrates.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Bacterial mechanosensing: the force will be with you, always.Journal of cell science · 2019Review
- Phototaxis as a Collective Phenomenon in Cyanobacterial Colonies.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- A Hybrid Approach for Segmentation and Tracking of Myxococcus Xanthus Swarms.IEEE transactions on medical imaging · 2016Article
- Colony Expansion of Socially Motile Myxococcus xanthus Cells Is Driven by Growth, Motility, and Exopolysaccharide Production.PLoS computational biology · 2016Article
- Interplay between type IV pili activity and exopolysaccharides secretion controls motility patterns in single cells of Myxococcus xanthus.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Myxobacteria: Moving, Killing, Feeding, and Surviving Together.Frontiers in microbiology · 2016Review
- How Myxobacteria Cooperate.Journal of molecular biology · 2015Review
- Evolution and Design Governing Signal Precision and Amplification in a Bacterial Chemosensory Pathway.PLoS genetics · 2015Article
- Spatiotemporal distribution of different extracellular polymeric substances and filamentation mediate Xylella fastidiosa adhesion and biofilm formation.Scientific reports · 2015Article
- Dual biochemical oscillators may control cellular reversals in Myxococcus xanthus.Biophysical journal · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Myxococcus xanthus is a bacterium capable of complex social organization. Its characteristic social ("S")-motility mechanism is mediated by type IV pili (TFP), linear actuator appendages that propel the bacterium along a surface. TFP are known to bind to secreted exopolysaccharides (EPS), but it is unclear how M. xanthus manages to use the TFP-EPS technology common to many bacteria to achieve its unique coordinated multicellular movements. We examine M. xanthus S-motility, using high-resolution particle-tracking algorithms, and observe aperiodic stick-slip movements. We show that they are not due to chemotaxis, but are instead consistent with a constant TFP-generated force interacting with EPS, which functions both as a glue and as a lubricant. These movements are quantitatively homologous to the dynamics of earthquakes and other crackling noise systems. These systems exhibit critical behavior, which is characterized by a statistical hierarchy of discrete "avalanche" motions described by a power law distribution. The measured critical exponents from M. xanthus are consistent with mean field theoretical models and with other crackling noise systems, and the measured Lyapunov exponent suggests the existence of highly branched EPS. Such molecular architectures, which are common for efficient lubricants but rare in bacterial EPS, may be necessary for S-motility: We show that the TFP of leading "locomotive" cells initiate the collective motion of follower cells, indicating that lubricating EPS may alleviate the force generation requirements on the lead cell and thus make S-motility possible.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.