Description: Physical Sensing of Surface Properties by Microswimmers

This title appears in the Scientific Report : 2015

Physical Sensing of Surface Properties by Microswimmers - Directing Bacterial Motion via Wall Slip

Bacteria such as Escherichia coli swim along circular trajectories adjacent to surfaces. Thereby, the orientation (clockwise, counterclockwise) and the curvature depend on the surface properties. We employ mesoscale hydrodynamic simulations of a mechano-elastic model of E. coli, with a spherocylindr...

Personal Name(s):	Hu, Jinglei
	Wysocki, Adam / Winkler, Roland G. / Gompper, Gerhard (Corresponding Author)
Contributing Institute:	Theorie der Weichen Materie und Biophysik; IAS-2 Theorie der Weichen Materie und Biophysik; ICS-2
Published in:	Scientific reports, 5 (2015) S. 9586
Imprint:	London Nature Publishing Group 2015
PubMed ID:	25993019
DOI:	10.1038/srep09586
Document Type:	Journal Article
Research Program:	Physical Basis of Diseases
Link:	OpenAccess OpenAccess
	Publikationsportal JuSER

Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/8635 in citations.
Please use the identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep09586 in citations.

Bacteria such as Escherichia coli swim along circular trajectories adjacent to surfaces. Thereby, the orientation (clockwise, counterclockwise) and the curvature depend on the surface properties. We employ mesoscale hydrodynamic simulations of a mechano-elastic model of E. coli, with a spherocylindrical body propelled by a bundle of rotating helical flagella, to study quantitatively the curvature of the appearing circular trajectories. We demonstrate that the cell is sensitive to nanoscale changes in the surface slip length. The results are employed to propose a novel approach to directing bacterial motion on striped surfaces with different slip lengths, which implies a transformation of the circular motion into a snaking motion along the stripe boundaries. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by a simulation of active Brownian rods, which also reveals a dependence of directional motion on the stripe width.