@article{a4816df9d2a14a7d8e074d4e30ca1c6e,
title = "Self-Driven Phase Transitions Drive Myxococcus xanthus Fruiting Body Formation",
abstract = "Combining high-resolution single cell tracking experiments with numerical simulations, we show that starvation-induced fruiting body formation in Myxococcus xanthus is a phase separation driven by cells that tune their motility over time. The phase separation can be understood in terms of cell density and a dimensionless P{\'e}clet number that captures cell motility through speed and reversal frequency. Our work suggests that M. xanthus takes advantage of a self-driven nonequilibrium phase transition that can be controlled at the single cell level.",
author = "Guannan Liu and Adam Patch and Fatmag{\"u}l Bahar and David Yllanes and Welch, {Roy D.} and Marchetti, {M. Cristina} and Shashi Thutupalli and Shaevitz, {Joshua W.}",
note = "Funding Information: The authors thank Suraj Shankar and Lisa Manning for useful discussions and Suraj Shankar for the calculation of the MSD for ABPs with reversals. M. C. M. was supported by NSF-DMR-1609208 and Simons Foundation Targeted Grant in the Mathematical Modeling of Living Systems 342354. M. C. M. and A. P. acknowledge support by the NSF IGERT program through Grant No. NSF-DGE-1068780. M. C. M., A. P., and D. Y. were additionally supported by the Soft Matter Program at Syracuse University. Simulations were carried out on the Syracuse University HTC Campus Grid supported by NSF-ACI-1341006. D. Y. acknowledges partial support from MINECO (Spain) and FEDER (European Union) FIS2015-65078-C2-1-P. J. W. S., S. T., and G. L. were supported by NSF-PHY-1401506, NSF-PHY-1521553, the Center for the Physics of Biological Function NSF-PHY-1734030, and an HFSP Cross Disciplinary Fellowship to S. T.. R. D. W. and F. B. were supported by NSF-DBI-1244295. Part of this work was performed at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by NSF-PHY-1607611. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 American Physical Society.",
year = "2019",
month = jun,
day = "20",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.248102",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "122",
journal = "Physical Review Letters",
issn = "0031-9007",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "24",
}