Flagellar number governs bacterial spreading and transport efficiency.

ABSTRACT: Peritrichous bacteria synchronize and bundle their flagella to actively swim, while disruption of the bundle leads to a slow motility phase with a weak propulsion. It is still not known whether the number of flagella represents an evolutionary adaptation toward optimizing bacterial navigation. We study the swimming dynamics of differentially flagellated Bacillus subtilis strains in a quasi-two-dimensional system. We find that decreasing the number of flagella N _f reduces the average turning angle between two successive run phases and enhances the run time and the directional persistence of the run phase. As a result, having fewer flagella is beneficial for long-distance transport and fast spreading, while having a lot of flagella is advantageous for the processes t

SUBMITTER: Najafi J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6157962 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature