Fluidic bacterial diodes rectify magnetotactic cell motility in porous environments.

ABSTRACT: Directed motility enables swimming microbes to navigate their environment for resources via chemo-, photo-, and magneto-taxis. However, directed motility competes with fluid flow in porous microbial habitats, affecting biofilm formation and disease transmission. Despite this broad importance, a microscopic understanding of how directed motility impacts the transport of microswimmers in flows through constricted pores remains unknown. Through microfluidic experiments, we show that individual magnetotactic bacteria directed upstream through pores display three distinct regimes, whereby cells swim upstream, become trapped within a pore, or are advected downstream. These transport regimes are reminiscent of the electrical conductivity of a diode and are accurately predicted by a comprehensive

SUBMITTER: Waisbord N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8511139 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature