Complete genome assembly of Myxococcus xanthus strain DZ2 using long high-fidelity (HiFi) reads generated by PacBio

Myxococcus xanthus, a social bacterium, preys on a broad range of microbes including bacteria as well as fungi. Its predatory behavior involves moving or gliding (socially and individually) into prey colonies, killing prey cells that they come in contact with and consuming them for nutrition. The predatory behaviors of M. xanthus have been researched for many decades, however the mechanisms of how it recognises and kills the diverse preys are not clearly understood yet. Interestingly, different strains of M. xanthus show different predation efficiencies against the same prey. Therefore, comparing the genomes of these strains might help in identifying key genes, pathways and molecules involved in prey recognition and killing. It is for this purpose, that we sequenced, assembled, and annotated the complete genome sequence of our lab strain, DZ2.