Biochemical characterization of fruiting body formation in the myxobacterium Myxococcus xanthus

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The proposed project deals with the physiology of the myxobacterium Myxococcus xanthus that forms fruiting bodies under starvation conditions. In these fruiting bodies vegetative cells develop into stress-resistant myxospores. In order to understand the underlying processes and to identify biomarkers that are characteristic and/or essential for this development, qualitative and quantitative changes in the composition of several classes of compounds (fatty acids, carbohydrates, amino acids) should be investigated. Thus this work is the basis for a detailed metabolic flux analysis which is essential to optimize selected metabolic pathways especially with respect to the production of pharmaceutically important compounds (antibiotics, anti-cancer compounds), whose formation is typical for myxobacteria.