Editing Myxobacteria (section)

==Life cycle==
When nutrients are scarce, myxobacterial cells aggregate into ''fruiting bodies'' (not to be confused with [[fruiting body|those in fungi]]), a process long-thought to be mediated by [[chemotaxis]] but now considered to be a function of a form of contact-mediated signaling.<ref name=Kiskowski_2004>{{cite journal | vauthors = Kiskowski MA, Jiang Y, Alber MS | title = Role of streams in myxobacteria aggregate formation | journal = Phys Biol | volume = 1 | issue = 3–4 | pages = 173–83 | date = December 2004 | pmid = 16204837 | doi = 10.1088/1478-3967/1/3/005 | bibcode = 2004PhBio...1..173K | s2cid = 18846289 }}</ref><ref name=Sozinova_2005>{{cite journal | vauthors = Sozinova O, Jiang Y, Kaiser D, Alber M | title = A three-dimensional model of myxobacterial aggregation by contact-mediated interactions | journal = Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. | volume = 102 | issue = 32 | pages = 11308–12 | date = August 2005 | pmid = 16061806 | pmc = 1183571 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0504259102 | bibcode = 2005PNAS..10211308S | doi-access = free }}</ref> These fruiting bodies can take different shapes and colors, depending on the species.  Within the fruiting bodies, cells begin as rod-shaped vegetative cells, and develop into rounded myxospores with thick cell walls.  These myxospores, analogous to [[spore]]s in other organisms, are more likely to survive until nutrients are more plentiful.  The fruiting process is thought to benefit myxobacteria by ensuring that [[cell growth]] is resumed with a group (swarm) of myxobacteria, rather than as isolated cells.  Similar life cycles have developed among certain [[amoebae]], called cellular [[slime mold]]s.

At a molecular level, initiation of fruiting body development in ''[[Myxococcus xanthus]]'' is regulated by [[Pxr sRNA]].<ref name="Yu10">{{cite journal | vauthors = Yu YT, Yuan X, Velicer GJ | title = Adaptive evolution of an sRNA that controls Myxococcus development | journal = Science | volume = 328 | issue = 5981 | pages = 993 | date = May 2010 | pmid = 20489016 | pmc = 3027070 | doi = 10.1126/science.1187200 | bibcode = 2010Sci...328..993Y }}</ref><ref name="Fie06">{{cite journal | vauthors = Fiegna F, Yu YT, Kadam SV, Velicer GJ | title = Evolution of an obligate social cheater to a superior cooperator | journal = Nature | volume = 441 | issue = 7091 | pages = 310–4 | date = May 2006 | pmid = 16710413 | doi = 10.1038/nature04677  | bibcode = 2006Natur.441..310F | s2cid = 4371886 }}</ref>

Myxobacteria such as ''[[Myxococcus xanthus]]'' and ''[[Stigmatella aurantiaca]]'' are used as [[model organisms]] for the study of development.

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| footer            = Various myxobacterial species as sketched by Roland Thaxter in 1892: ''Chondromyces crocatus'' (figs. 1–11), ''Stigmatella aurantiaca'' (figs. 12–19 and 25-28), ''Melittangium lichenicola'' (figs. 20–23), ''Archangium gephyra'' (fig. 24), ''Myxococcus coralloides'' (figs. 29-33), ''Polyangium vitellinum'' (figs. 34-36), and ''Myxococcus fulvus'' (figs. 37-41). Thaxter was the first taxonomist to recognize the bacterial nature of the myxobacteria. Previously, they had been misclassified as members of the ''fungi imperfecti.''<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Thaxter R |date=1892|title=On the Myxobacteriaceæ, a New Order of Schizomycetes |journal=Botanical Gazette|language=en|volume=17|issue=12|pages=389–406|doi=10.1086/326866|issn=0006-8071|doi-access=free}}</ref>
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It has been suggested that the last common ancestor of myxobacteria was an aerobe and that their anaerobic predecessors lived syntrophically with early eukaryotes.<ref name="hoshino2021">{{cite journal | title = Evolution of bacterial steroid biosynthesis and its impact on eukaryogenesis | last1 = Hoshino | first1 = Y. | last2 = Gaucher | first2 = E.A. | journal = PNAS | volume = 118 | issue = 25 | year = 2021 | page = e2101276118 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.2101276118|issn=0027-8424 | pmid = 34131078| pmc = 8237579 | doi-access = free }}</ref>