title: Tissue repair in myxobacteria: A cooperative strategy to heal cellular damage.
abstract: Damage repair is a fundamental requirement of all life as organisms find themselves in challenging and fluctuating environments. In particular, damage to the barrier between an organism and its environment (e.g. skin, plasma membrane, bacterial cell envelope) is frequent because these organs/organelles directly interact with the external world. Here, we discuss the general strategies that bacteria use to cope with damage to their cell envelope and their repair limits. We then describe a novel damage-coping mechanism used by multicellular myxobacteria. We propose that cell-cell transfer of membrane material within a population serves as a wound-healing strategy and provide evidence for its utility. We suggest that--similar to how tissues in eukaryotes have evolved cooperative methods of damage repair--so too have some bacteria that live a multicellular lifestyle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Vassallo
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wall
mesh_terms: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D001692:Biological Transport; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D004721:Endoplasmic Reticulum / Q000378:metabolism; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D056265:Microbial Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D009231:Myxococcales / Q000502:physiology*; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides
keywords: damage dilution; damage repair; lipopolysaccharide; myxobacteria; outer membrane exchange; rejuvenation