Predatory Bacterial Crowdsourcing

Scientists at Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School have discovered how one of the world’s smallest predators — the soil bacteria Myxococcus xanthus — cooperates to form millions-strong waves that engulf prey. In a September 2012 study in PLOS Computational Biology, the researchers showed that a computer model could recreate M. xanthus’ wave patterns when cells were programmed to follow three simple rules: when two cells moving toward one another have side-to-side contact, they exchange a signal that causes one of them to reverse; a time interval after each reversal during which cells cannot reverse again; and physical interactions that cause the cells to align.

credit:  O. Igoshin/Rice University