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Updated: Jun 24, 2025

Fluorescence Live-cell Imaging of the Complete Vegetative Cell Cycle of the Slow-growing Social Bacterium Myxococcus xanthus
Published on: June 20, 2018
Gear up! An overview of the molecular equipment used by Myxococcus to move, kill, and divide in prey colonies
Julien Herrou1, Dorothée Murat1, Tâm Mignot1
1Laboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne (LCB), Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée (IMM), Turing Center for Living Systems, CNRS - Aix-Marseille Université UMR7283, 31 Chemin Joseph Aiguier CS70071, 13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France.
Abstract:
Myxococcus relies on motility to efficiently invade and predate a prey colony. Upon contact with prey, Myxococcus temporarily halts its motility and initiates prey cell lysis, which involves two contact-dependent predatory machineries, the Kil system and the needleless T3SS*. Predatory cells grow as they invade and feed on prey cells. When dividing, Myxococcus cells systematically pause their movements before division. This highlights a high level of co-ordination between motility and contact-dependent killing but also with cell division. In this review, we give an overview of the different nanomachines used by Myxococcus to move on surfaces, kill by contact, and divide, and we discuss the potential regulatory mechanisms at play during these different processes.
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