Regulation of M. xanthus Social Gliding by Dif Pathway

黄色粘球菌在其发育生活史中表现出细菌中最壮观的形态发生。为了应对饥饿，成千上万的细胞通过滑动运动聚集并形成肉眼可见的多细胞子实体。成熟子实体内的营养细胞分化为休眠和抗胁迫的粘孢子。与其他已知的滑翔细菌不同，M。Xanthus具有两个滑行系统，冒险运动系统（A）和社会运动系统（S）。而A运动使M. xanthus细胞作为孤立的个体运动，S运动表现为大细胞群的运动。这仍然是一个谜M。xanthus细胞之间相互作用和协调，产生S运动。一组新的基因，即dif基因，与S运动有关。预测的dif基因产物与许多细菌的趋化蛋白具有很高的相似性。已知细菌趋化蛋白是细菌对环境刺激的策略性反应的感觉信号转导途径。Dif和趋化蛋白之间的相似性和Dif突变体的S-运动缺陷强烈建议参与的感觉成分在调节S-运动。该项目采用遗传学、分子生物学和生物化学的多学科方法来检查和巩固工作假设。将构建DIF突变用于功能和结构研究。将表征difA突变体的遗传抑制子以鉴定与dif趋化性样信号转导途径具有功能性、生物化学和/或物理相互作用的基因。在更广泛的背景下，该项目的成果有望促进我们对细胞间相互作用和细胞间通信的理解，这些相互作用和通信在各种生物系统和过程中广泛存在并发挥重要作用。

Myxococcus xanthus exhibits the most spectacular morphogenesis among bacteria during its developmental life cycle. In response to starvation, tens of thousands of cells move by gliding motility to aggregate and to form multicellular fruiting bodies visible to the naked eye. Vegetative cells within mature fruiting bodies differentiate into dormant and stress-resistant myxospores. Distinct from any other known gliding bacteria, M. xanthus possesses two gliding systems, the adventurous (A) and the social (S) motility systems. While A motility enables M. xanthus cells to move as isolated individuals, S motility is manifested as movement of large cell groups. It remains an enigma how M. xanthus cells interact and coordinate with one another to bring about S motility. A new set of genes, the dif genes, is implicated in S motility. The predicted dif gene products show high similarity to chemotaxis proteins from many bacteria. It is known that bacterial chemotaxis proteins constitute sensory signal transduction pathways that are responsible for bacterial tactic responses to environmental stimuli. The similarity between Dif and chemotaxis proteins and the S-motility defects of dif mutants strongly suggest the involvement of a sensory component in the regulation of S-motility. This project takes a multidisciplinary approach of genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry to examine and to consolidate working hypotheses. dif mutations will be constructed for functional and structural studies. Genetic suppressors of difA mutants will be characterized to identify genes with functional, biochemical and/or physical interactions with the dif chemotaxis-like signal transduction pathway. In a broader context, the outcome of this project is expected to advance our understanding of cell-cell interactions and intercellular communications, which are widespread and play essential roles in various biological systems and processes.