title: Bacteria slingshot more on soft surfaces.
abstract: Adaptive responses greatly improve the competitive capacities of bacteria in diverse environments. Here, we investigate whether bacteria can adapt to a microenvironment with distinctive softness by examining the type-IV pili (TFP)-mediated motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells on brush-like surfaces that are grafted with a layer of thermally sensitive polymer chains, where the softness of the brush-layer is tunable by applying a small temperature change (from 30 to 37 °C). We report that P. aeruginosa cells slingshot more on soft surfaces at a shear-thinning condition, which greatly facilitates their surface crawling by means of reducing energy dissipation. This adaptive response suggests that P. aeruginosa cells may be able to sense the local viscoelasticity and then deploy TFP to adapt to their physical surroundings.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Rongrong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Zhenyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Jiahong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1] Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China [2] Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China [3] CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000502:physiology*; D018441:Biofilms; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011108:Polymers; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013499:Surface Properties; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers