109 research outputs found
Swimming in circles: Motion of bacteria near solid boundaries
Near a solid boundary, E. coli swims in clockwise circular motion. We provide
a hydrodynamic model for this behavior. We show that circular trajectories are
natural consequences of force-free and torque-free swimming, and the
hydrodynamic interactions with the boundary, which also leads to a hydrodynamic
trapping of the cells close to the surface. We compare the results of the model
with experimental data and obtain reasonable agreement. In particular, we show
that the radius of curvature of the trajectory increases with the length of the
bacterium body.Comment: Also available at http://people.deas.harvard.edu/~lauga
A bacterial ratchet motor
Self-propelling bacteria are a dream of nano-technology. These unicellular
organisms are not just capable of living and reproducing, but they can swim
very efficiently, sense the environment and look for food, all packaged in a
body measuring a few microns. Before such perfect machines could be
artificially assembled, researchers are beginning to explore new ways to
harness bacteria as propelling units for micro-devices. Proposed strategies
require the careful task of aligning and binding bacterial cells on synthetic
surfaces in order to have them work cooperatively. Here we show that asymmetric
micro-gears can spontaneously rotate when immersed in an active bacterial bath.
The propulsion mechanism is provided by the self assembly of motile Escherichia
coli cells along the saw-toothed boundaries of a nano-fabricated rotor. Our
results highlight the technological implications of active matter's ability to
overcome the restrictions imposed by the second law of thermodynamics on
equilibrium passive fluids.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Oscillatory surface rheotaxis of swimming E. coli bacteria
Bacterial contamination of biological conducts, catheters or water resources
is a major threat to public health and can be amplified by the ability of
bacteria to swim upstream. The mechanisms of this rheotaxis, the reorientation
with respect to flow gradients, often in complex and confined environments, are
still poorly understood. Here, we follow individual E. coli bacteria swimming
at surfaces under shear flow with two complementary experimental assays, based
on 3D Lagrangian tracking and fluorescent flagellar labelling and we develop a
theoretical model for their rheotactic motion. Three transitions are identified
with increasing shear rate: Above a first critical shear rate, bacteria shift
to swimming upstream. After a second threshold, we report the discovery of an
oscillatory rheotaxis. Beyond a third transition, we further observe
coexistence of rheotaxis along the positive and negative vorticity directions.
A full theoretical analysis explains these regimes and predicts the
corresponding critical shear rates. The predicted transitions as well as the
oscillation dynamics are in good agreement with experimental observations. Our
results shed new light on bacterial transport and reveal new strategies for
contamination prevention.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Possible origins of macroscopic left-right asymmetry in organisms
I consider the microscopic mechanisms by which a particular left-right (L/R)
asymmetry is generated at the organism level from the microscopic handedness of
cytoskeletal molecules. In light of a fundamental symmetry principle, the
typical pattern-formation mechanisms of diffusion plus regulation cannot
implement the "right-hand rule"; at the microscopic level, the cell's
cytoskeleton of chiral filaments seems always to be involved, usually in
collective states driven by polymerization forces or molecular motors. It seems
particularly easy for handedness to emerge in a shear or rotation in the
background of an effectively two-dimensional system, such as the cell membrane
or a layer of cells, as this requires no pre-existing axis apart from the layer
normal. I detail a scenario involving actin/myosin layers in snails and in C.
elegans, and also one about the microtubule layer in plant cells. I also survey
the other examples that I am aware of, such as the emergence of handedness such
as the emergence of handedness in neurons, in eukaryote cell motility, and in
non-flagellated bacteria.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to J. Stat. Phys. special issue.
Major rewrite, rearranged sections/subsections, new Fig 3 + 6, new physics in
Sec 2.4 and 3.4.1, added Sec 5 and subsections of Sec
A circle swimmer at low Reynolds number
Swimming in circles occurs in a variety of situations at low Reynolds number.
Here we propose a simple model for a swimmer that undergoes circular motion,
generalising the model of a linear swimmer proposed by Najafi and Golestanian
(Phys. Rev. E 69, 062901 (2004)). Our model consists of three solid spheres
arranged in a triangular configuration, joined by two links of time-dependent
length. For small strokes, we discuss the motion of the swimmer as a function
of the separation angle between its links. We find that swimmers describe
either clockwise or anticlockwise circular motion depending on the tilting
angle in a non-trivial manner. The symmetry of the swimmer leads to a
quadrupolar decay of the far flow field. We discuss the potential extensions
and experimental realisation of our model.Comment: 9 pages, 9 Figure
Quantitative Modeling of Escherichia coli Chemotactic Motion in Environments Varying in Space and Time
Escherichia coli chemotactic motion in spatiotemporally varying environments is studied by using a computational model based on a coarse-grained description of the intracellular signaling pathway dynamics. We find that the cell's chemotaxis drift velocity vd is a constant in an exponential attractant concentration gradient [L]∝exp(Gx). vd depends linearly on the exponential gradient G before it saturates when G is larger than a critical value GC. We find that GC is determined by the intracellular adaptation rate kR with a simple scaling law: . The linear dependence of vd on G = d(ln[L])/dx directly demonstrates E. coli's ability in sensing the derivative of the logarithmic attractant concentration. The existence of the limiting gradient GC and its scaling with kR are explained by the underlying intracellular adaptation dynamics and the flagellar motor response characteristics. For individual cells, we find that the overall average run length in an exponential gradient is longer than that in a homogeneous environment, which is caused by the constant kinase activity shift (decrease). The forward runs (up the gradient) are longer than the backward runs, as expected; and depending on the exact gradient, the (shorter) backward runs can be comparable to runs in a spatially homogeneous environment, consistent with previous experiments. In (spatial) ligand gradients that also vary in time, the chemotaxis motion is damped as the frequency ω of the time-varying spatial gradient becomes faster than a critical value ωc, which is controlled by the cell's chemotaxis adaptation rate kR. Finally, our model, with no adjustable parameters, agrees quantitatively with the classical capillary assay experiments where the attractant concentration changes both in space and time. Our model can thus be used to study E. coli chemotaxis behavior in arbitrary spatiotemporally varying environments. Further experiments are suggested to test some of the model predictions
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