Characterization of a Myxococcus xanthus mutant that is defective for adventurous motility and social motility

Lancero, Hope; Caberoy, Nora B.; Castaneda, Schryl; Li, Yinuo; Lu, Ann; Dutton, David P.; Duan, Xue Yan; Kaplan, Heidi B.; Shi, Wenyuan; Garza, Anthony G.

doi:10.1099/mic.0.27381-0

Cited by 45 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…M. xanthus strains were grown and development was induced in submerged culture as described previously (29). The procedures for RNA preparation (50), cDNA generation, and QPCR reactions have been described previously (29).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cascade of coregulating enhancer binding proteins initiates and propagates a multicellular developmental program

Giglio

Caberoy

Suen

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

139

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The signal transduction networks that initiate multicellular development in bacteria remain largely undefined. Here, we report that Myxococcus xanthus regulates entry into its multicellular developmental program using a novel strategy: a cascade of transcriptional activators known as enhancer binding proteins (EBPs). The EBPs in the cascade function in sequential stages of early development, and several lines of evidence indicate that the cascade is propagated when EBPs that function at one stage of development directly regulate transcription of an EBP gene important for the next developmental stage. We also show that the regulatory cascade is designed in a novel way that extensively expands on the typical use of EBPs: Instead of using only one EBP to regulate a particular gene or group of genes, which is the norm in other bacterial systems, the cascade uses multiple EBPs to regulate EBP genes that are positioned at key transition points in early development. Based on the locations of the putative EBP promoter binding sites, several different mechanisms of EBP coregulation are possible, including the formation of coregulating EBP transcriptional complexes. We propose that M. xanthus uses an EBP coregulation strategy to make expression of EBP genes that modulate stage-stage transitions responsive to multiple signal transduction pathways, which provide information that is important for a coordinated decision to advance the developmental process.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cascade of coregulating enhancer binding proteins initiates and propagates a multicellular developmental program

Giglio

Caberoy

Suen

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

139

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“…It was proposed that fibril EPS may mediate the retraction of type IV pili (26), the likely motor for S-motility (38). The regulation of fibril EPS clearly requires multiple genetic loci, including tgl (10), stk (10,22), sglK (40,42), eps and eas (27), nla24 (24), and dif (4,7,45). The dif locus encodes proteins with extensive homology to bacterial chemotaxis proteins.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrate-Dependent Activation of the Dif Signaling Pathway ofMyxococcus xanthusMediated by a NarX-DifA Interspecies Chimera

Black

Ward

et al. 2005

J Bacteriol

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Myxococcus xanthus fibril exopolysaccharide (EPS), essential for the social gliding motility and development of this bacterium, is regulated by the Dif chemotaxis-like pathway. DifA, an MCP homolog, is proposed to mediate signal input to the Dif pathway. However, DifA lacks a prominent periplasmic domain, which in classical chemoreceptors is responsible for signal perception and for initiating transmembrane signaling. To investigate the signaling properties of DifA, we constructed a NarX-DifA (NafA) chimera from the sensory module of Escherichia coli NarX and the signaling module of M. xanthus DifA. We report here the first functional chimeric signal transducer constructed using genes from organisms in two different phylogenetic subdivisions. When expressed in M. xanthus, NafA restored fruiting body formation, EPS production, and S-motility to difA mutants in the presence of nitrate. Studies with various double mutants indicate that NafA requires the downstream Dif proteins to function. We propose that signal inputs to the Dif pathway and transmembrane signaling by DifA are essential for the regulation of EPS production in M. xanthus. Despite the apparent structural differences, DifA appears to share similar transmembrane signaling mechanisms with enteric sensor kinases and chemoreceptors.

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“…General searches for mutants of M. xanthus with motility defects have shown that single-cell (adventurous, A) motility and group-dependent (social, S) motility are genetically separable and that each type of motility requires the functions of large, nonoverlapping sets of genes (Hodgkin and Kaiser 1979a,b;Macneil et al 1994a,b;Youderian et al 2003). Mutations in only three genes, mglA, which encodes a small GTPase (Stephens and Kaiser 1987;Stephens et al 1989;Hartzell and Kaiser 1991a,b;Hartzell 1997), agmA, which is predicted to encode a critical amidase involved in cell wall biogenesis (Youderian et al 2003), and epsI/nla24, predicted to encode an activator of transcription (Caberoy et al 2003;Lancero et al 2004;Lu et al 2005), have been shown to abolish both mechanisms of motility simultaneously.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Transposon Insertions ofmagellan-4That Impair Social Gliding Motility inMyxococcus xanthus

Youderian

Hartzell

2006

Genetics

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Myxococcus xanthus has two different mechanisms of motility, adventurous (A) motility, which permits individual cells to glide over solid surfaces, and social (S) motility, which permits groups of cells to glide. To identify the genes involved in S-gliding motility, we mutagenized a DaglU (A ÿ ) strain with the defective transposon, magellan-4, and screened for S ÿ mutants that form nonmotile colonies. Sequence analysis of the sites of the magellan-4 insertions in these mutants and the alignment of these sites with the M. xanthus genome sequence show that two-thirds of these insertions lie within 27 of the 37 nonessential genes known to be required for social motility, including those necessary for the biogenesis of type IV pili, exopolysaccharide, and lipopolysaccharide. The remaining insertions also identify 31 new, nonessential genes predicted to encode both structural and regulatory determinants of S motility. These include three tetratricopeptide repeat proteins, several regulators of transcription that may control the expression of genes involved in pilus extension and retraction, and additional enzymes involved in polysaccharide metabolism. Three insertions that abolish S motility lie within genes predicted to encode glycolytic enzymes, suggesting that the signal for pilus retraction may be a simple product of exopolysaccharide catabolism.

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Characterization of a Myxococcus xanthus mutant that is defective for adventurous motility and social motility

Cited by 45 publications

References 47 publications

A cascade of coregulating enhancer binding proteins initiates and propagates a multicellular developmental program

A cascade of coregulating enhancer binding proteins initiates and propagates a multicellular developmental program

Nitrate-Dependent Activation of the Dif Signaling Pathway ofMyxococcus xanthusMediated by a NarX-DifA Interspecies Chimera

Transposon Insertions ofmagellan-4That Impair Social Gliding Motility inMyxococcus xanthus

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