Regarding the strategies employed by these bacteria to cope with salt and desiccation stress, the accumulation of organic osmolytes instead of the salt-in strategy can be expected. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that all strains investigated so far can grow within a relatively wide range of salinity. Also, the terrestrial strain M. xanthus, which is slightly halotolerant, uses organic osmolytes, i.e., glycine betaine to combat osmotic stress [16]. Analyses on the osmoprotective strategies of Enhygromyxa salina SWB007 and Plesiocystis pacifica SIR-1 revealed that both closely related strains rely on organic osmolytes. For instance, E. salina SWB007 biosynthesizes the osmolytes betaine, ectoine, and especially hydroxyectoine under high salt concentrations. In contrast, P. pacifica SIR-1 does not synthesize specialized compatible solutes; this strain rather accumulates amino acids as osmoprotective agents [17]. Of course, further mechanisms may be involved for osmoregula- tion, but are not known to date for myxobacteria. A list of general bacterial osmoregulation processes is given elsewhere [18].