Dynamics of Snake-like Swarming Behavior of Vibrio alginolyticus.

ABSTRACT: Swarming represents a special case of bacterial behavior where motile bacteria migrate rapidly and collectively on surfaces. Swarming and swimming motility of bacteria has been studied well for rigid, self-propelled rods. In this study we report a strain of Vibrio alginolyticus, a species that exhibits similar collective motility but a fundamentally different cell morphology with highly flexible snake-like swarming cells. Investigating swarming dynamics requires high-resolution imaging of single cells with coverage over a large area: thousands of square microns. Researchers previously have employed various methods of motion analysis but largely for rod-like bacteria. We employ temporal variance analysis of a short time-lapse microscopic image series to capture the motion dynamics of swarmi

SUBMITTER: Bottcher T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4776037 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature