ArticleNature communications2025
Local polar order controls mechanical stress and triggers layer formation in Myxococcus xanthus colonies.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Self-propulsive active nematics.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Article
- Traction and Stress Control Formation and Motion of +1/2 Topological Defects in Epithelial Cell Monolayers.Newton ((New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Genetic and environmental determinants of streaming and aggregation in Myxococcus xanthus.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Capillary interactions drive the self-organization of bacterial colonies.Nature physics · 2025Article
- Dissecting the physics of bacterial biofilms with agent-based simulations.Current opinion in solid state & materials science · 2025Article
- Motor-driven microtubule diffusion in a photobleached dynamical coordinate system.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Physical communication pathways in bacteria: an extra layer to quorum sensing.Biophysical reviews · 2025Review
- Integer topological defects offer a methodology to quantify and classify active cell monolayers.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Local polar order controls mechanical stress and triggers layer formation in Myxococcus xanthus colonies.Nature communications · 2025Article
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Abstract
Colonies of the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus go through a morphological transition from a thin colony of cells to three-dimensional droplet-like fruiting bodies as a strategy to survive starvation. The biological pathways that control the decision to form a fruiting body have been studied extensively. However, the mechanical events that trigger the creation of multiple cell layers and give rise to droplet formation remain poorly understood. By measuring cell orientation, velocity, polarity, and force with cell-scale resolution, we reveal a stochastic local polar order in addition to the more obvious nematic order. Average cell velocity and active force at topological defects agree with predictions from active nematic theory, but their fluctuations are substantially larger than the mean due to polar active forces generated by the self-propelled rod-shaped cells. We find that M. xanthus cells adjust their reversal frequency to tune the magnitude of this local polar order, which in turn controls the mechanical stresses and triggers layer formation in the colonies.
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