title: Adaptation of salt-tolerant Myxococcus strains and their motility systems to the ocean conditions.
abstract: More and more studies have indicated that myxobacteria are able to live in seawater conditions, which, however, can decrease the fruiting body formation ability and also the adventurous (A) and social (S) motility systems of the myxobacteria. To learn the adaptation mechanism of the salt-tolerant myxobacteria to marine conditions, we analyzed 10 salt-tolerant Myxococcus strains of their fruiting body formation and motility. The isolates were from marine samples and possessed different levels of salt tolerance. They had the dual motility system and formed fruiting bodies in the presence of suitable seawater concentrations. Some high salt-tolerant strains even lost their fruiting abilities in the absence of seawater. In response to the presence of seawater, the S-motility was found to be increased in the high salt-tolerants but decreased in the low salt-tolerants. The A-motility, on the other hand, was observed in all the salt-tolerant Myxococcus strains, but increased or decreased in response to the presence of seawater. Perceived shifts of fruiting body formation abilities and motilities discovered in the salt-tolerant Myxococcus strains suggested an ecological adaptation of myxobacterial social behaviors to the marine environments.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, College of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Cui-ying
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jing-yi
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: De-ming
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Zhi-hong
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yue-zhong
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D009024:Morphogenesis; D016940:Myxococcus / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010802:Phylogeny; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000378:metabolism*; D013171:Spores, Bacterial
chemical_list: D012965:Sodium Chloride