Self-nonself recognition and multicellularity in myxobacteria

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Abstract A fundamental question in biology is how individual cells within a multicellular organism recognize other cells as self to cooperatively function in tissues, organs and as whole individuals. To address this complex question, we study a relatively simple and experimentally trackable model organism, Myxococcus xanthus. Although a bacterium, M. xanthus exhibits many traits found in tissues and more complex multicellular species. One trait is multicellular development in response to starvation. Another trait, we discovered, is the ability of cells to distinguish between self and nonself for the exchange of cellular proteins and lipids. Recognition is mediated by a polymorphic cell surface receptor called TraA and its partner TraB. Only cells that bear identical or nearly identical TraA receptors engage by homotypic interactions. Social outcomes from this process, called outer membrane exchange (OME), vary depending on the properties of the interacting cells. In some cases, OME leads to cooperative interactions whereby healthy donors repair damaged cells by replenishing their cell components. In other cases, OME leads to antagonism when partnering cells are not clonal. Discrimination occurs by polymorphic toxin transfer to recipient cells that lack cognate immunity. Our future goals are multifaceted with respect to understanding OME and, more broadly, how cells recognize self and transition toward multicellularity. Over the next five years we will critically examine how OME leads to cooperativity. One area of investigation is how TraA/B directs emergent behaviors in populations that include synchronized and coordinated movements. This will be explored by monitoring global gene expression and how TraA/B interacts with a signal transduction pathway that controls motility. Cell synchronization is being studied with a biosensor the monitors’ calcium fluxes in cells. Other approaches will probe how M. xanthus responds and adapts to environmental stresses, whereby those adaptations are transferred to naïve populations by OME. A second area of research addresses how myxobacteria rapidly diverge into different social groups in natural environments. Our preliminary findings indicate that horizontal gene transfer by non-lytic transducing particles mediate population divergence by carrying polymorphic genes involved in social discrimination. A third focus area will elucidate the mechanism of OME thought to involve outer membrane fusion. Finally, we will explore new mechanisms of self- recognition and its role in multicellular life.