Unidirectional motility of Escherichia coli in restrictive capillaries.
In a 6-microns capillary filled with buffer and in the absence of any chemotactic stimuli, Escherichia coli K-12 cells swim persistently in only one direction. This behavior of E. coli can be simply explained by means of the length and relative rigidity of their flagella. Single-cell motility parameters--swimming speed, turn angle, and run length time--were measured. Compared with the motility parameters measured in bulk phase, turn angle was influenced because of the effect of the geometrical restriction.
D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology*; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology; D012988:Soil Microbiology