Publications

• Weltzer, M. L., & Wall, D. in prep. A filamentous cell surface protein implicated in target recognition by the type VI secretion system.
• Weltzer, M. L., Govearts, J., & Wall, D. (2024). Chimeric aggregative multicellularity in absence of kin discrimination. bioRxiv, 2024-12.
• Kaimer, C., Weltzer, M. L., & Wall, D. (2023). Two reasons to kill: predation and kin discrimination in myxobacteria. Microbiology, 169(7), 001372.
• Weltzer, M. L., & Wall, D. (2023). Social Diversification Driven by Mobile Genetic Elements. Genes, 14(3), 648.
• Vassallo, C. N., Sah, G. P., Weltzer, M. L., & Wall, D. (2021). Modular lipoprotein toxins transferred by outer membrane exchange target discrete cell entry pathways. Mbio, 12(5), 10-1128.
• Vassallo, C. N., Troselj, V., Weltzer, M. L., & Wall, D. (2020). Rapid diversification of wild social groups driven by toxin-immunity loci on mobile genetic elements. The ISME Journal, 14(10), 2474-2487.
• Weltzer, M. L., & Miller, S. R. (2013). Division-specific differences in bacterial community assembly of two alkaline hot spring ecosystems from Yellowstone National Park. Microbial Ecology, 65(3), 537-540.
• Weltzer, M. L., & Miller, S. R. (2013). Ecological divergence of a novel group of Chloroflexus strains along a geothermal gradient. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 79(4), 1353-1358.
• Miller, S. R., & Weltzer, M. (2011). Investigating Bacterial Diversity Along Alkaline Hot-Spring Thermal Gradients by Barcoded Pyrosequencing. Handbook of Molecular Microbial Ecology II: Metagenomics in Different Habitats, 423-427. 

I am interested in cellular recognition and cell surface proteins in the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. M. xanthus is a predatory microbe, but under starvation conditions, thousands of cells aggregate to form multicellular fruiting bodies to produce spores. This and other cooperative behaviors are restricted to closely related kin. Therefore, M. xanthus requires mechanisms to identify their kin, as well as competitors and prey. Kin discrimination is accomplished by exchange of polymorphic toxins, which can be delivered by three different mechanisms. One of these mechanisms is the type VI secretion system, which is a molecular weapon present in approximately 25% of Gram-negative bacteria. An active area of research is whether M. xanthus possesses a mechanism to identify and target cells on which it will deploy the type VI secretion system.