dsg, a gene required for cell-cell interaction early in Myxococcus development.

AUTOR(ES)

Cheng, Y

RESUMO

dsg mutants of Myxococcus xanthus are conditionally defective in fruiting body development, including sporulation. Unable to develop on their own, these mutants can assemble fruiting bodies with spores if they are mixed with wild-type cells. To elucidate the developmental defect in dsg mutants by close comparison with wild type, such mutants have been backcrossed by transduction, using a closely linked insertion of transposon Tn5 for selection. Backcrossed dsg mutants form aggregates that are larger, less compact, and less symmetrical than dsg+ fruiting bodies. Also, the starvation-induced sporulation in dsg aggregates is delayed and reduced. However, dsg mutants can be induced by glycerol or dimethyl sulfoxide to sporulate at levels approaching those of wild type. dsg mutants may thus have a primary defect early in development which diminishes their capacity to aggregate and which indirectly decreases the number of fruiting body spores. The linked insertion of Tn5 also facilitated cloning the dsg gene. The cloned dsg+ allele was shown to be dominant to both the dsg-429 and dsg-439 alleles, and both mutant alleles were shown to belong to the same genetic complementation group. Subcloning of restriction fragments, deletions, and insertions of transposon Tn5 agree in locating the dsg gene to an 850-base-pair segment of the cloned region.

Documentos Relacionados

• dsg, a gene required for Myxococcus development, is necessary for cell viability.
• Identification of esg, a genetic locus involved in cell-cell signaling during Myxococcus xanthus development.
• Cell–cell interaction in prostate gene regulation and cytodifferentiation
• Courtship in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: an early cell-cell interaction during mating.
• Transposon tagging of genes for cell-cell interactions in Myxococcus xanthus.