Natural variation in developmental life-history traits of the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus.

ABSTRACT: The soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus is a model for the study of cooperative microbial behaviours such as social motility and fruiting body formation. Several M. xanthus developmental traits that are frequently quantified for laboratory strains are likely to be significant components of fitness in natural populations, yet little is known about the degree to which such traits vary in the wild and may therefore be subject to natural selection. Here, we have tested whether several key M. xanthus developmental life-history traits have diverged significantly among strains both from globally distant origins and from within a sympatric, centimetre-scale population. The isolates examined here were found to vary considerably, in a heritable manner, in their rate of developmental aggregation and in

SUBMITTER: Kraemer SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2910118 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature