Sorangium cellulosum is a soil-dwelling Gram-negative

Gram-negative

Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain crystal violet dye in the Gram staining protocol. In a Gram stain test, a counterstain is added after the crystal violet, coloring all Gram-negative bacteria with a red or pink color...

 bacterium of the group myxobacteria

Myxobacteria

The myxobacteria are a group of bacteria that predominantly live in the soil. The myxobacteria have very large genomes, relative to other bacteria, e.g. 9-10 million nucleotides. Sorangium cellulosum has the largest known bacterial genome, at 13.0 million nucleotides...

. It is motile and shows gliding motility

Bacterial gliding

Bacterial gliding is a process whereby a bacterium can move under its own power. This process does not involve the use of flagella, which is a more common means of motility in bacteria...

. It has an unusually-large genome of 13,033,779 base pairs, making it the largest bacterial genome sequenced to date.

Clinical use

Metabolites secreted by Sorangium cellulosum known as epothilone

Epothilone

The epothilones are a new class of cancer drugs. Like taxanes, they prevent cancer cells from dividing by interfering with tubulin, but in early trials epithilones have better efficacy and milder adverse effects than taxanes....

s have been noted to have antineoplastic activity. This has led to the development of analogs

Analog (chemistry)

In chemistry, a structural analog , also known as chemical analog or simply analog, is a compound having a structure similar to that of another one, but differing from it in respect of a certain component. It can differ in one or more atoms, functional groups, or substructures, which are replaced...

 which mimic its activity. One such analog, known as Ixabepilone

Ixabepilone

Ixabepilone is an epothilone B analog developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb as a cancer drug.It is produced by Sorangium cellulosum.-Pharmacology:It acts to stabilize microtubules....

 is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved chemotherapy agent for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer

Breast cancer

Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...

.http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/druginfo/fda-ixabepilone