A multiscale 3D chemotaxis assay reveals bacterial navigation mechanisms.

ABSTRACT: How motile bacteria navigate environmental chemical gradients has implications ranging from health to climate science, but the underlying behavioral mechanisms are unknown for most species. The well-studied navigation strategy of Escherichia coli forms a powerful paradigm that is widely assumed to translate to other bacterial species. This assumption is rarely tested because of a lack of techniques capable of bridging scales from individual navigation behavior to the resulting population-level chemotactic performance. Here, we present such a multiscale 3D chemotaxis assay by combining high-throughput 3D bacterial tracking with microfluidically created chemical gradients. Large datasets of 3D trajectories yield the statistical power required to assess chemotactic performance at the populati

SUBMITTER: Grognot M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8175578 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature