Effect of Gravity on Bacterial Adhesion to Heterogeneous Surfaces.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial adhesion is the first step in the formation of surface biofilms. The number of bacteria that bind to a surface from the solution depends on how many bacteria can reach the surface (bacterial transport) and the strength of interactions between bacterial adhesins and surface receptors (adhesivity). By using microfluidic channels and video microscopy as well as computational simulations, we investigated how the interplay between bacterial transport and adhesivity affects the number of the common human pathogen Escherichia coli that bind to heterogeneous surfaces with different receptor densities. We determined that gravitational sedimentation causes bacteria to concentrate at the lower surface over time as fluid moves over a non-adhesive region, so bacteria preferentially adh

SUBMITTER: Hogan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10383686 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature