Mechanism for Collective Cell Alignment inﾠ Myxococcus xanthus Bacteria

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dc.citation.firstpagee1004474en_US
dc.citation.issueNumber8en_US
dc.citation.journalTitlePLoS Computational Biologyen_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber11en_US
dc.contributor.authorBalagam, Rajeshen_US
dc.contributor.authorIgoshin, Oleg A.en_US
dc.contributor.orgBioengineeringen_US
dc.contributor.orgCenter for Theoretical Biological Physicsen_US
dc.date.accessioned2016-03-28T20:49:40Zen_US
dc.date.available2016-03-28T20:49:40Zen_US
dc.date.issued2015en_US
dc.description.abstractMyxococcus xanthusﾠcells self-organize into aligned groups, clusters, at various stages of their lifecycle. Formation of these clusters is crucial for the complex dynamic multi-cellular behavior of these bacteria. However, the mechanism underlying the cell alignment and clustering is not fully understood. Motivated by studies of clustering in self-propelled rods, we hypothesized thatﾠM.ﾠxanthusﾠcells can align and form clusters through pure mechanical interactions among cells and between cells and substrate. We test this hypothesis using an agent-based simulation framework in which each agent is based on the biophysical model of an individualﾠM.ﾠxanthusﾠcell. We show that model agents, under realistic cell flexibility values, can align and form cell clusters but only when periodic reversals of cell directions are suppressed. However, by extending our model to introduce the observed ability of cells to deposit and follow slime trails, we show that effective trail-following leads to clusters in reversing cells. Furthermore, we conclude that mechanical cell alignment combined with slime-trail-following is sufficient to explain the distinct clustering behaviors observed for wild-type and non-reversingﾠM.ﾠxanthusﾠmutants in recent experiments. Our results are robust to variation in model parameters, match the experimentally observed trends and can be applied to understand surface motility patterns of other bacterial species.en_US
dc.identifier.citationBalagam, Rajesh and Igoshin, Oleg A.. "Mechanism for Collective Cell Alignment inﾠ Myxococcus xanthus Bacteria." <i>PLoS Computational Biology,</i> 11, no. 8 (2015) Public Library of Science: e1004474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004474.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004474en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/88655en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.rightsThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the�Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_US
dc.titleMechanism for Collective Cell Alignment inﾠ Myxococcus xanthus Bacteriaen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.publicationpublisher versionen_US
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