FIG. 6.

Model for the initiation of multicellular development. Although a combination of high cell density and starvation will induce fruiting body formation in monoculture, it is important to consider that M. xanthus is a predatory bacterium and that prey availability alters the timing and localization of fruiting body aggregation as well. The early signals for this process are therefore dependent on interspecies signals, and self-generated signals from the relA and asg loci are not required for cellular differentiation until later in development.