Social conflict in centimeter-and global-scale populations of the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus.

ABSTRACT: Social interactions among microbes that engage in cooperative behaviors are well studied in laboratory contexts [1, 2], but little is known about the scales at which initially cooperative microbes diversify into socially conflicting genotypes in nature. The predatory soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus responds to starvation by cooperatively forming multicellular fruiting bodies in which a portion of the population differentiates into stress-resistant spores [3, 4]. Natural M. xanthus populations are spatially structured [5], and genetically divergent isolates from distant origins exhibit striking developmental antagonisms that decrease spore production in chimeric fruiting bodies [6]. Here we show that genetically similar isolates of M. xanthus from a centimeter-scale population [7] also ex

SUBMITTER: Vos M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2858270 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature