Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kaya T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3318139 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Biophysical journal 20120403 7
We provide an experimental demonstration of positive rheotaxis (rapid and continuous upstream motility) in wild-type Escherichia coli freely swimming over a surface. This hydrodynamic phenomenon is dominant below a critical shear rate and robust against Brownian motion and cell tumbling. We deduce that individual bacteria entering a flow system can rapidly migrate upstream (>20 μm/s) much faster than a gradually advancing biofilm. Given a bacterial population with a distribution of sizes and swi ...[more]