Developmental sensory transduction in Myxococcus xanthus involves methylation and demethylation of FrzCD

Myxococcus xanthus is a bacterium that moves by gliding motility and exhibits multicellular development (fruiting body formation). The frizzy (frz) mutants aggregate aberrantly and therefore fail to form fruiting bodies. Individual frz cells cannot control the frequency at which they reverse direction while gliding. Previously, FrzCD was shown to exhibit significant sequence similarity to the enteric methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins. In this report, we show that FrzCD is modified by methylation and that frzF encodes the methyltransferase. We also identify a new gene, frzG, whose predicted product is homologous to that of the cheB (methylesterase) gene from Escherichia coli. Thus, although M. xanthus is unflagellated, it appears to have a sensory transduction system which is similar in many of its components to those found in flagellated bacteria.