Jesus Manuel Antúnez Domínguez, Laura Pérez García, Natsuko Rivera-Yoshida, Jasmin Di Franco, David Steiner, Alejandro V. Arzola, Mariana Benítez, Charlotte Hamngren Blomqvist, Roberto Cerbino, Caroline Beck Adiels, Giovanni Volpe
Soft Matter 21, 8602-8623 (2025)
arXiv: 2407.18714
doi: 10.1063/5.0235449
Myxococcus xanthus is a unicellular organism known for its capacity to move and communicate, giving rise to complex collective properties, structures and behaviors. These characteristics have contributed to position M. xanthus as a valuable model organism for exploring emergent collective phenomena at the interface of biology and physics, particularly within the growing domain of active matter research. Yet, researchers frequently encounter difficulties in establishing reproducible and reliable culturing protocols. This tutorial provides a detailed and accessible guide to the culture, growth, development, and experimental sample preparation of M. xanthus. In addition, it presents several exemplary experiments that can be conducted using these samples, including motility assays, fruiting body formation, predation, and elasticotaxis—phenomena of direct relevance for active matter studies.