Reversal of bacterial locomotion at an obstacle

作     者：Luis Cisneros Christopher Dombrowski Raymond E. Goldstein John O. Kessler 

作者机构：Department of Physics University of Arizona Tucson Arizona 85721 USA Program in Applied Mathematics University of Arizona Tucson Arizona 85721 USA BIO5 Institute University of Arizona Tucson Arizona 85721 USA 

出 版 物：《Physical Review E》 (物理学评论E辑：统计、非线性和软体物理学)

年 卷 期：2006年第73卷第3期

页      面：030901(R)-030901(R)页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 070203[理学-原子与分子物理] 0702[理学-物理学] 

基　　金：National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIGMS, (R01GM072004) National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIGMS 

主　　题：Bacteria 

摘      要：Recent experiments have shown large-scale dynamic coherence in suspensions of the bacterium B. subtilis, characterized by quorum polarity, collective parallel swimming of cells. To probe mechanisms leading to this, we study the response of individual cells to steric stress, and find that they can reverse swimming direction at spatial constrictions without turning the cell body. The consequences of this propensity to flip the flagella are quantified by measurements of the inward and outward swimming velocities, whose asymptotic values far from the constriction show near perfect symmetry, implying that “forwards and “backwards are dynamically indistinguishable, as with E. coli.