On Modeling Complex Collective Behavior in Myxobacteria

This paper reviews recent progress in modeling collective behaviors in myxobacteria using lattice gas cellular automata approach (LGCA). Myxobacteria are social bacteria that swarm, glide on surfaces and feed cooperatively. When starved, tens of thousands of cells change their movement pattern from outward spreading to inward concentration; they form aggregates that become fruiting bodies. Cells inside fruiting bodies differentiate into round, nonmotile, environmentally resistant spores. Traditionally, cell aggregation has been considered to imply chemotaxis, a long-range cell interaction. However, myxobacteria aggregation is the consequence of direct cell-contact interactions, not chemotaxis. In this paper, we review biological LGCA models based on local cell–cell contact signaling that have reproduced the rippling, streaming, aggregating and sporulation stages of the fruiting body formation in myxobacteria.