Cloning of the gene for myxobacterial hemagglutinin and isolation and analysis of structural gene mutations.

Myxobacterial hemagglutinin (MBHA) is a major developmentally induced protein that accumulates during the period of cellular aggregation in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. It has been shown that this lectin is targeted to the cell surface and periplasmic space of developmental cells, suggesting that it may play a role in cell-cell recognition or agglutination. We have cloned the structural gene for MBHA by using synthetic deoxyoligonucleotides containing sequences deduced from the amino acid sequence of MBHA and have used the cloned gene to construct strains of M. xanthus that cannot synthesize MBHA. We found that although the MBHA-deficient strains are delayed in their developmental time course, they are otherwise able to aggregate and sporulate normally. Our results suggest that MBHA may function to increase the efficiency of fruiting-body formation but is not a critical component of cellular aggregation.