Myxococcaceae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

gram-negative Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. They are characterized by their cell envelopes, which are composed of a thin peptidoglycan cell wa ...

, rod-shaped

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometr ...

. The family Myxococcaceae is encompassed within the

myxobacteria The myxobacteria ("slime bacteria") are a group of bacteria that predominantly live in the soil and feed on insoluble organic substances. The myxobacteria have very large genomes relative to other bacteria, e.g. 9–10 million nucleotides except ...

("slime bacteria"). The family is ubiquitously found in soils, marine, and freshwater environments. Production of compounds with medical uses by Myxococcaceae makes them useful in human health fields.

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the

List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) is an online database that maintains information on the nomenclature, naming and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of prokaryotes, following the taxonomy requirements and rulings of the In ...

(LPSN) and

National Center for Biotechnology Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The ...

(NCBI)

Morphology and Behavior

Cells can be motile with gliding and swarming behavior. The vegetative cell shape in the Myxococcaceae family is long rods, which vary in size between members. The most common fruiting body morphs are soft hump and knob shaped with possible colors of yellow, peach, white, or orange depending on species. Myxococcaceae are spore producing bacteria and are delineated by their spore shape. The myxospores are oval to round and are optically refractive.

Quorum sensing In biology, quorum sensing or quorum signalling (QS) is the ability to detect and respond to cell population density by gene regulation. As one example, QS enables bacteria to restrict the expression of specific genes to the high cell densities at ...

(QS) behavior is limited in this family. However, there is evidence that some members of the family produce molecules that interrupt the QS of other microbes, behavior potentially useful in

predation Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

Relevance

Bacteria in the order of Myxococcales have led to scientific discoveries including the first genome to be sequenced, the primary observation of plasmid replication, and the first discovery of bacteriophage. Members of the Myxococcaceae produce a wide range of secondary metabolites having useful functions and applications. Compounds with anti-microbial, anti-parasitic, and in rare cases, anti-HIV activities have been isolated from the Myxococcaceae.

References

Myxococcota {{Bacteria-stub

Phylogeny

Morphology and Behavior

Relevance

See also

References