Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria

Abstract The ability to rapidly detect and track nutrient gradients is key to the ecological success of motile bacteria in aquatic systems. Consequently, bacteria have evolved a number of chemotactic strategies that consist of sequences of straight runs and reorientations. Theoretically, both phases...

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Autores principales:	Òscar Guadayol, Katie L. Thornton, Stuart Humphries
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e9bb5481bb964c02be95ea82250007db
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e9bb5481bb964c02be95ea82250007db2021-12-02T11:40:33ZCell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria10.1038/s41598-017-01565-y2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/e9bb5481bb964c02be95ea82250007db2017-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01565-yhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The ability to rapidly detect and track nutrient gradients is key to the ecological success of motile bacteria in aquatic systems. Consequently, bacteria have evolved a number of chemotactic strategies that consist of sequences of straight runs and reorientations. Theoretically, both phases are affected by fluid drag and Brownian motion, which are themselves governed by cell geometry. Here, we experimentally explore the effect of cell length on control of swimming direction. We subjected Escherichia coli to an antibiotic to obtain motile cells of different lengths, and characterized their swimming patterns in a homogeneous medium. As cells elongated, angles between runs became smaller, forcing a change from a run-and-tumble to a run-and-stop/reverse pattern. Our results show that changes in the motility pattern of microorganisms can be induced by simple morphological variation, and raise the possibility that changes in swimming pattern may be triggered by both morphological plasticity and selection on morphology.Òscar GuadayolKatie L. ThorntonStuart HumphriesNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Òscar Guadayol Katie L. Thornton Stuart Humphries Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria
description	Abstract The ability to rapidly detect and track nutrient gradients is key to the ecological success of motile bacteria in aquatic systems. Consequently, bacteria have evolved a number of chemotactic strategies that consist of sequences of straight runs and reorientations. Theoretically, both phases are affected by fluid drag and Brownian motion, which are themselves governed by cell geometry. Here, we experimentally explore the effect of cell length on control of swimming direction. We subjected Escherichia coli to an antibiotic to obtain motile cells of different lengths, and characterized their swimming patterns in a homogeneous medium. As cells elongated, angles between runs became smaller, forcing a change from a run-and-tumble to a run-and-stop/reverse pattern. Our results show that changes in the motility pattern of microorganisms can be induced by simple morphological variation, and raise the possibility that changes in swimming pattern may be triggered by both morphological plasticity and selection on morphology.
format	article
author	Òscar Guadayol Katie L. Thornton Stuart Humphries
author_facet	Òscar Guadayol Katie L. Thornton Stuart Humphries
author_sort	Òscar Guadayol
title	Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria
title_short	Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria
title_full	Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria
title_fullStr	Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria
title_full_unstemmed	Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria
title_sort	cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/e9bb5481bb964c02be95ea82250007db
work_keys_str_mv	AT oscarguadayol cellmorphologygovernsdirectionalcontrolinswimmingbacteria AT katielthornton cellmorphologygovernsdirectionalcontrolinswimmingbacteria AT stuarthumphries cellmorphologygovernsdirectionalcontrolinswimmingbacteria
_version_	1718395614847303680

Cell morphology governs directional control in swimming bacteria

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