Myxobacteria

Myxobacteria are soil bacteria that use quorum sensing to coordinate multicellular development. When nutrients are depleted and population density is high, myxobacteria aggregate into fruiting bodies containing spores. The aggregation is triggered by quorum-sensing signals (A-signal, C-signal) that detect cell density.

Only at high density do cells sacrifice motility to form fruiting bodies - low-density populations continue foraging. This represents one of the most complex examples of bacterial multicellularity, with cells differentiating into different roles during fruiting body formation.