Patterns of bacterial motility in microfluidics-confining environments
Abstract
Understanding bacterial movement is crucial for health, agriculture, environment, and industry. Studying the motility of five bacterial species in microfluidic environments showed that bacterial motility behavior is the result of a “tug-of-war” between hydrodynamics and local nanomechanics. In less confining spaces, bacterial motility is governed by hydrodynamics and can be approximately predicted by modeling developed for the simplest species. Conversely, in tightly confining environments, movement is mainly controlled by the steric interactions between flagella and the surrounding walls. Intriguingly, in mesoscale-sized geometries, hydrodynamics and bacterium–wall interactions overlap, either “constructively,” leading to smooth movement in straight channels, or “destructively,” leading to trapping. Our study provides a methodological template for the development of devices for single-cell genomics, diagnostics, or biocomputation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 19, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.2013925118
Entities
People
- Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum Perumal
- Charles Tremblay
- Dan V Nicolau
- Dan V. Nicolau Jr.
- Eamonn A. Gaffney
- Henry Shum
- Kavya Rajendran
- Mahmood Mohammadi
- Monalisha Nayak
- Ondřej Kašpar
- Sylvain Martel
- Viola Tokárová
Organizations
- Australian Research Council
- McGill University
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- Polytechnic School of Montreal
- Queensland University of Technology
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
- University of Chemistry and Technology
- University of Waterloo