Collective escape of chemotactic swimmers through microscopic ratchets.
We report on the emergence of spontaneously forming migrating bands of E. coli bacteria inside a microchannel containing microstructured ratchets. We show that a collection of bacteria is able to migrate against the funnel-shaped barriers by creating and maintaining a chemoattractant gradient. A transition between pure rectification and chemotaxis-driven collective motion is predicted from theoretical models, and is observed experimentally as the initial inoculation density is varied.
Lambert
Guillaume
G
Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Liao
David
D
Austin
Robert H
RH
D000465:Algorithms; D002633:Chemotaxis; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D046169:Dermoscopy; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology*; D005453:Fluorescence; D044085:Microfluidics; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement; D013997:Time Factors; D014741:Video Recording