title: Bacterial motion in narrow capillaries.
abstract: Motile bacteria often have to pass through small tortuous pores in soil or tissue of higher organisms. However, their motion in this prevalent type of niche is not fully understood. Here, we modeled it with narrow glass capillaries and identified a critical radius (Rc) for bacterial motion. Near the surface of capillaries narrower than that, the swimming trajectories are helices. In larger capillaries, they swim in distorted circles. Under non-slip condition, the peritrichous Escherichia coli swam in left-handed helices with an Rc of ~10 μm near glass surface. However, slipping could occur in the fast monotrichous Pseudomonas fluorescens, when a speed threshold was exceeded, and thus both left-handed and right-handed helices were executed in glass capillaries. In the natural non-cylindrical pores, the near-surface trajectories would be spirals and twisted loops. Engaging in such motions reduces the bacterial migration rate. With a given pore size, the run length and the tumbling angle of the bacterium determine the probability and duration of their near-surface motion. Shear flow and chemotaxis potentially enhance it. Based on this observation, the puzzling previous observations on bacterial migration in porous environments can be interpreted.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoell-Str. 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany Current address: Rowland Institute at Harvard University, 100 Edwin H. Land Blvd, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA ping@rowland.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Liyan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ping
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada.
authors.forename: Vaibhav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wasnik
authors.affiliation: Physics Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada.
authors.forename: Eldon
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Emberly
mesh_terms: D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology*; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D016062:Porosity; D011551:Pseudomonas fluorescens / Q000502:physiology*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
keywords: hydrodynamics; migration rate; porous environment; swimming bacteria