Myxococcus xanthus is a model organism for studying bacterial social
behaviors due to its ability to form complex multi-cellular structures.
Knowledge of M. xanthus surface gliding motility and the mechanisms that
coordinate it are critically important to our understanding of collective cell
behaviors. Although the mechanism of gliding motility is still under
investigation, recent experiments suggest that there are two possible
mechanisms underlying force production for cell motility: the focal adhesion
mechanism and the helical rotor mechanism which differ in the biophysics of the
cell-substrate interactions. Whereas the focal adhesion model predicts an
elastic coupling, the helical rotor model predicts a viscous coupling. Using a
combination of computational modeling, imaging, and force microscopy, we find
evidence for elastic coupling in support of the focal adhesion model. Using a
biophysical model of the M. xanthus cell, we investigated how the mechanical
interactions between cells are affected by interactions with the substrate.
Comparison of modeling results with experimental data for cell-cell collision
events pointed to a strong, elastic attachment between the cell and substrate.
These results are robust to variations in the mechanical and geometrical
parameters of the model. We then directly measured the motor-substrate coupling
by monitoring the motion of optically trapped beads and find that motor
velocity decreases exponentially with opposing load. At high loads, motor
velocity approaches zero velocity asymptotically and motors remain bound to
beads indicating a strong, elastic attachment