Self-Driven Phase Transitions Drive Myxococcus xanthus Fruiting Body Formation

Guannan Liu, Adam Patch, Fatmagül Bahar, David Yllanes, Roy D. Welch, M. Cristina Marchetti, Shashi Thutupalli, and Joshua W. Shaevitz
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 248102 – Published 20 June 2019
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Abstract

Combining high-resolution single cell tracking experiments with numerical simulations, we show that starvation-induced fruiting body formation in Myxococcus xanthus is a phase separation driven by cells that tune their motility over time. The phase separation can be understood in terms of cell density and a dimensionless Péclet number that captures cell motility through speed and reversal frequency. Our work suggests that M. xanthus takes advantage of a self-driven nonequilibrium phase transition that can be controlled at the single cell level.

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  • Received 29 June 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.248102

© 2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics of Living Systems

Authors & Affiliations

Guannan Liu1,*, Adam Patch2,*, Fatmagül Bahar3,*, David Yllanes2,4,*, Roy D. Welch3, M. Cristina Marchetti5, Shashi Thutupalli6, and Joshua W. Shaevitz1,†

  • 1Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics and Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Soft and Living Matter Program, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA
  • 3Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA
  • 4Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos (BIFI), 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
  • 5Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
  • 6Simons Center for the Study of Living Machines, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Bangalore 560065, India.

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • shaevitz@princeton.edu

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Issue

Vol. 122, Iss. 24 — 21 June 2019

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