Quantification of the effect of flowrate on the rates of arrival and attachment to glass of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Sets of time lapse sequences (movies) of pseudomonad cells attaching in each of six flowcells operated at Reynolds numbers from 96-2220 were obtained over a 3-d period. The interval between images varied between 1 s and 24 min, which allowed a range of different cell behaviours to be observed. The rate of accumulation of the cells on the surface was determined for each flowrate. Analysis of the images showed that the residence time distributions of the attaching cells were of the same form as those recorded previously in the literature. This showed that up to 50% of the cells that arrived sufficiently close to the surface to be considered temporarily attached, left the surface within 1 s of arrival. Use of an analytically derived algorithm allowed the rate of arrival of the cells to be estimated. Data showed that for every cell attaching on a relatively permanent basis, between 20 and 35 cells arrived at the surface.
Department of Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Hatherley Laboratory, University of Exeter, UK. J.D.Boyle@ex.ac.uk
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D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D002452:Cell Count; D005898:Glass / Q000737:chemistry*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000166:cytology*; D013997:Time Factors