Question

Q1.26. The social bacteria M. xanthus coordinate group attacks on other bacteria, rapidly consuming entire colonies of prey. Researchers may be interested in many different aspects of this behavior. Recall Tinbergen's classification of questions about behavior (click here to go back to page 2 and review). Which of the following hypotheses suggests the potential ADAPTIVE VALUE of such a coordinated attack? M. xanthus use chemical signals that are exchanged between neighbors to coordinate their attacks. Coordinated attacks are unique among bacteria, having evolved in only M. xanthus M. xanthus that engage in coordinated attacks feed more efficiently and reproduce faster than those that don't M. xanthus only engage in coordinated attacks if they have reached a certain, more mature, developmental stage.

Answer 1

Swarms of predatory Myxococcus xanthus kill and consume an impressively wide range of prey by releasing bioactive toxic secondary metabolites, exo-enzymes, and lytic compounds. The majority of the B. subtilis megastructures were found adjacent to or even on top of M. xanthus fruiting bodies and it appears that sustained and coordinated predatory attacks are required to induce B. subtilis NCIB3610 cells to build a megastructure. Coordinated motility by M. xanthus has been observed by various experiments.  The advantage to feeding cooperatively is having a larger genetic representation that is more likely to have the ability to encode the lipases, proteases, nucleases and produce other digestive enzymes or antibiotics imperative to the lysing and digesting of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.

a) M.Xanthus use chemical signals that are exchanged between neighbors to coordinate their attacks.

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