Distinct chemotactic behavior in the original Escherichia coli K-12 depending on forward-and-backward swimming, not on run-tumble movements.

ABSTRACT: Most motile bacteria are propelled by rigid, helical, flagellar filaments and display distinct swimming patterns to explore their favorable environments. Escherichia coli cells have a reversible rotary motor at the base of each filament. They exhibit a run-tumble swimming pattern, driven by switching of the rotational direction, which causes polymorphic flagellar transformation. Here we report a novel swimming mode in E. coli ATCC10798, which is one of the original K-12 clones. High-speed tracking of single ATCC10798 cells showed forward and backward swimming with an average turning angle of 150°. The flagellar helicity remained right-handed with a 1.3 μm pitch and 0.14 μm helix radius, which is consistent with the feature of a curly type, regardless of motor switching; the flagella of ATC

SUBMITTER: Kinosita Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7522084 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature