Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

31 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Bacteria slingshot more on soft surfaces.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive responses greatly improve the competitive capacities of bacteria in diverse environments. Here, we investigate whether bacteria can adapt to a microenvironment with distinctive softness by examining the type-IV pili (TFP)-mediated motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells on brush-like surfaces that are grafted with a layer of thermally sensitive polymer chains, where the softness of the brush-layer is tunable by applying a small temperature change (from 30 to 37 °C). We report that P. aeruginosa cells slingshot more on soft surfaces at a shear-thinning condition, which greatly facilitates their surface crawling by means of reducing energy dissipation. This adaptive response suggests that P. aeruginosa cells may be able to sense the local viscoelasticity and then deploy TFP to adapt to their physical surroundings.

SUBMITTER: Zhang R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4263163 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Publications

Bacteria slingshot more on soft surfaces.

Zhang Rongrong R Ni Lei L Jin Zhenyu Z Li Jiahong J Jin Fan F

Nature communications 20141121

Adaptive responses greatly improve the competitive capacities of bacteria in diverse environments. Here, we investigate whether bacteria can adapt to a microenvironment with distinctive softness by examining the type-IV pili (TFP)-mediated motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells on brush-like surfaces that are grafted with a layer of thermally sensitive polymer chains, where the softness of the brush-layer is tunable by applying a small temperature change (from 30 to 37 °C). We report that P. a ...[more]

PMID: 25412641

Similar Datasets

Bacteria use type-IV pili to slingshot on surfaces.

Project description:Bacteria optimize the use of their motility appendages to move efficiently on a wide range of surfaces prior to forming multicellular bacterial biofilms. The "twitching" motility mode employed by many bacterial species for surface exploration uses type-IV pili (TFP) as linear actuators to enable directional crawling. In addition to linear motion, however, motility requires turns and changes of direction. Moreover, the motility mechanism must be adaptable to the continually changing surface conditions encountered during biofilm formation. Here, we develop a novel two-point tracking algorithm to dissect twitching motility in this context. We show that TFP-mediated crawling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa consistently alternates between two distinct actions: a translation of constant velocity and a combined translation-rotation that is approximately 20× faster in instantaneous velocity. Orientational distributions of these actions suggest that the former is due to pulling by multiple TFP, whereas the latter is due to release by single TFP. The release action leads to a fast "slingshot" motion that can turn the cell body efficiently by oversteering. Furthermore, the large velocity of the slingshot motion enables bacteria to move efficiently through environments that contain shear-thinning viscoelastic fluids, such as the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that bacteria secrete on surfaces during biofilm formation.

| S-EPMC3150923 | biostudies-literature

Biofilms deform soft surfaces and disrupt epithelia.

Project description:During chronic infections and in microbiota, bacteria predominantly colonize their hosts as multicellular structures called biofilms. A common assumption is that biofilms exclusively interact with their hosts biochemically. However, the contributions of mechanics, while being central to the process of biofilm formation, have been overlooked as a factor influencing host physiology. Specifically, how biofilms form on soft, tissue-like materials remains unknown. Here, we show that biofilms of the pathogens Vibrio cholerae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa can induce large deformations of soft synthetic hydrogels. Biofilms buildup internal mechanical stress as single cells grow within the elastic matrix. By combining mechanical measurements and mutations in matrix components, we found that biofilms deform by buckling, and that adhesion transmits these forces to their substrates. Finally, we demonstrate that V. cholerae biofilms can generate sufficient mechanical stress to deform and even disrupt soft epithelial cell monolayers, suggesting a mechanical mode of infection.

| S-EPMC7556879 | biostudies-literature

Rotating Bacteria on Solid Surfaces without Tethering.

Project description:Bacterial motion is strongly affected by the presence of a surface. One of the hallmarks of swimming near a surface is a defined curvature of bacterial trajectories, underlining the importance of counter rotations of the cell body and flagellum for locomotion of the microorganism. We find that there is another mode of bacterial motion on solid surfaces, i.e., self trapping due to fluid flows created by a rotating flagellum perpendicular to the surface. For a rod-like bacterium, such as Escherichia coli, this creates a peculiar situation in that the bacterium appears to swim along a minor axis of the cell body and is pressed against the surface. Although a full hydrodynamic theory is still lacking to explain the self-trapping phenomenon, the effect is intriguing and can be exploited to study a variety of biophysical phenomena of swimming bacteria. In particular, we showed that self-trapped E. coli cells display a chemotaxis response that is identical to the classical rotation assay in which antibodies are used to physically "glue" a flagellum to the surface.

| S-EPMC6084641 | biostudies-literature

Direct force measurement of microscopic droplets pulled along soft surfaces.

Project description:When a droplet is placed on a soft surface, surface tension deforms the substrate, creating a capillary ridge. We study how the motion of the ridge dissipates energy in microscopic droplets. Using a micropipette based method, we are able to simultaneously image and measure forces on a microscopic droplet moving at a constant speed along a soft film supported on a rigid substrate. Changing the thickness of the thin film tunes the effective stiffness of the substrate. Thus we can control the ridge size without altering the surface chemistry. We find that the dissipation depends strongly on the film thickness, decreasing monotonically as effective stiffness increases. This monotonic trend is beyond the realm of small deformation theory, but can be explained with a simple scaling analysis.

| S-EPMC9338979 | biostudies-literature

Design of Soft Material Surfaces with Rationally Tuned Water Diffusivity.

Project description:Water structure and dynamics can be key modulators of adsorption, separations, and reactions at soft material interfaces, but systematically tuning water environments in an aqueous, accessible, and functionalizable material platform has been elusive. This work leverages variations in excluded volume to control and measure water diffusivity as a function of position within polymeric micelles using Overhauser dynamic nuclear polarization spectroscopy. Specifically, a versatile materials platform consisting of sequence-defined polypeptoids simultaneously offers a route to controlling the functional group position and a unique opportunity to generate a water diffusivity gradient extending away from the polymer micelle core. These results demonstrate an avenue not only to rationally design the chemical and structural properties of polymer surfaces but also to design and tune the local water dynamics that, in turn, can adjust the local activity for solutes.

| S-EPMC10214527 | biostudies-literature

How bacteria use electric fields to reach surfaces.

Project description:Electrotaxis is the property of cells to sense electric fields and use them to orient their displacement. This property has been widely investigated with eukaryotic cells but it remains unclear whether or not bacterial cells can sense an electric field. Here, a specific experimental set-up was designed to form microbial electroactive biofilms while differentiating the effect of the electric field from that of the polarised electrode surface. Application of an electric field during exposure of the electrodes to the inoculum was shown to be required for an electroactive biofilm to form afterwards. Similar biofilms were formed in both directions of the electric field. This result is attributed to the capacity of the cells to detect the K+ and Na+ ion gradients that the electric field creates at the electrode surface. This microbial property should now be considered as a key factor in the formation of electroactive biofilms and possible implications in the biomedical domain are discussed.

| S-EPMC8090995 | biostudies-literature

Bacteria responsive antibacterial surfaces for indwelling device infections.

Project description:Indwelling device infections now represent life-threatening circumstances as a result of the biofilms' tolerance to antibiotic treatments. Current antibiotic impregnation approaches through sustained antibiotic release have some unsolved problems which include short life-span, narrowed antibacterial spectrum, ineffectiveness towards resistant mutants, and the potential to hasten the antibiotic resistance process. In this study, bacteria responsive anti-biofilm surfaces were developed using bioactive peptides with proved activity to antibiotic resistant bacteria and biofilms. Resulting surfaces were stable under physiological conditions and in the presence of high concentrations of salts (0.5M NaCl) and biomacromolcules (1.0% DNA and 2.0% alginate), and thus showed good biocompatibility to various tissue cells. However, lytic peptide immobilized surfaces could sense bacteria adhesion and kill attached bacteria effectively and specifically, so biofilms were unable to develop on the lytic peptide immobilized surfaces. Bacteria responsive catheters remained biofilm free for up to a week. Therefore, the bacteria responsive antibacterial surfaces developed in this study represent new opportunities for indwelling device infections.

| S-EPMC4295119 | biostudies-literature

Chemical tethering of motile bacteria to silicon surfaces.

Project description:We chemically immobilized live, motile Escherichia coli on micrometer-scale, photocatalytically patterned silicon surfaces via amine- and carboxylic acid-based chemistries. Immobilization facilitated (i) controlled positioning; (ii) high resolution cell wall imaging via atomic force microscopy (AFM); and (iii) chemical analysis with time-of-flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Spinning motion of tethered bacteria, captured with fast-acquisition video, proved microbe viability. We expect our protocols to open new experimental doors for basic and applied studies of microorganisms, from host-pathogen relationships, to microbial forensics and drug discovery, to biosensors and biofuel cell optimization.

| S-EPMC2693215 | biostudies-literature

Mega macromolecules as single molecule lubricants for hard and soft surfaces.

Project description:A longstanding goal in science and engineering is to mimic the size, structure, and functionality present in biology with synthetic analogs. Today, synthetic globular polymers of several million molecular weight are unknown, and, yet, these structures are expected to exhibit unanticipated properties due to their size, compactness, and low inter-chain interactions. Here we report the gram-scale synthesis of dendritic polymers, mega hyperbranched polyglycerols (mega HPGs), in million daltons. The mega HPGs are highly water soluble, soft, nanometer-scale single polymer particles that exhibit low intrinsic viscosities. Further, the mega HPGs are lubricants acting as interposed single molecule ball bearings to reduce the coefficient of friction between both hard and soft natural surfaces in a size dependent manner. We attribute this result to their globular and single particle nature together with its exceptional hydration. Collectively, these results set the stage for new opportunities in the design, synthesis, and evaluation of mega polymers.

| S-EPMC7195476 | biostudies-literature

Wireless soft millirobots for climbing three-dimensional surfaces in confined spaces.

Project description:Wireless soft-bodied robots at the millimeter scale allow traversing very confined unstructured terrains with minimal invasion and safely interacting with the surrounding environment. However, existing untethered soft millirobots still lack the ability of climbing, reversible controlled surface adhesion, and long-term retention on unstructured three-dimensional (3D) surfaces, limiting their use in biomedical and environmental applications. Here, we report a fundamental peeling-and-loading mechanism to allow untethered soft-bodied robots to climb 3D surfaces by using both the soft-body deformation and whole-body motion of the robot under external magnetic fields. This generic mechanism is implemented with different adhesive robot footpad designs, allowing vertical and inverted surface climbing on diverse 3D surfaces with complex geometries and different surface properties. With the unique robot footpad designs that integrate microstructured adhesives and tough bioadhesives, the soft climbing robot could achieve controllable adhesion and friction to climb 3D soft and wet surfaces including porcine tissues, which paves the way for future environmental inspection and minimally invasive medicine applications.

| S-EPMC9140972 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data