Morphologies of fruiting bodies and myxospores of M. xanthus DZF1 and deletion mutants. (A) The shapes and sizes of fruiting bodies on different starvation media are shown; the pictures were taken on a light microscope. Bar, 1 mm. (B) Fruiting bodies of M. xanthus DZF1, JM2, and JM3 on MCM medium are shown; the pictures were taken in a scanning electron microscope. Bar, 50 μm. (C) Wild-type and JM322 myxospores are shown; the pictures were taken on a transmission electron microscope. Bar, 1 μm.