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Kin discrimination and outer membrane exchange in Myxococcus xanthus: A comparative analysis among natural isolates

Overview of attention for article published in Molecular Ecology, July 2018
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (62nd percentile)

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Title
Kin discrimination and outer membrane exchange in Myxococcus xanthus: A comparative analysis among natural isolates
Published in
Molecular Ecology, July 2018
DOI 10.1111/mec.14773
Pubmed ID
Authors

Sébastien Wielgoss, Francesca Fiegna, Olaya Rendueles, Yuen‐Tsu N. Yu, Gregory J. Velicer

Abstract

Genetically similar cells of the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus cooperate at multiple social behaviours, including motility and multicellular development. Another social interaction in this species is outer-membrane exchange (OME), a behaviour of unknown primary benefit in which cells displaying closely related variants of the outer-membrane protein TraA transiently fuse and exchange membrane contents. Functionally incompatible TraA variants do not mediate OME, which led to the proposal that TraA incompatibilities determine patterns of intercellular cooperation in nature, but how this might occur remains unclear. Using natural isolates from a centimetre-scale patch of soil, we analyse patterns of TraA diversity and ask whether relatedness at TraA is causally related to patterns of kin discrimination in the form of both colony-merger incompatibilities (CMIs) and inter-strain antagonisms. A large proportion of TraA functional diversity documented among global isolates is predicted to be contained within this cm-scale population. We find evidence of balancing selection on the highly variable PA14-portion of TraA and extensive transfer of traA alleles across genomic backgrounds. CMIs are shown to be common among strains identical at TraA, suggesting that CMIs are not generally caused by TraA dissimilarity. Finally, it has been proposed that inter-strain antagonisms might be caused by OME-mediated toxin transfer. However, we predict that most strain pairs previously shown to exhibit strong antagonisms are incapable of OME due to TraA dissimilarity. Overall, our results suggest that most documented patterns of kin discrimination in a natural population of M. xanthus are not causally related to the TraA sequences of interactants. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 6 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 28 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 28 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 10 36%
Researcher 5 18%
Student > Bachelor 2 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 2 7%
Student > Master 2 7%
Other 4 14%
Unknown 3 11%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 12 43%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 14%
Immunology and Microbiology 3 11%
Environmental Science 2 7%
Nursing and Health Professions 1 4%
Other 2 7%
Unknown 4 14%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 September 2018.
All research outputs
#7,605,206
of 24,451,065 outputs
Outputs from Molecular Ecology
#3,545
of 6,565 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#123,168
of 332,304 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Molecular Ecology
#56
of 76 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,451,065 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 6,565 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.5. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 332,304 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 76 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 23rd percentile – i.e., 23% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.